


The Butcher's House

by Fire_Bear



Series: AFTG Bingo 2020 [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: (not sure whether to count that as major or minor), (probably), Character Death, Ghosts, Haunted Houses, Horror, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Supernatural Gore, character injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26092684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Bear/pseuds/Fire_Bear
Summary: Andrew thought something was odd with the house the Foxes had to move into after their Athletes' House had been burnt down. He just wasn't prepared for what was actually wrong with it.For this was a house full of monsters.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: AFTG Bingo 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817614
Comments: 48
Kudos: 104
Collections: All For The Game Bingo 2020





	1. The Welcome

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to do some more Bingo stuff and I loved this idea. It's definitely a multi-chapter story, though, so... Yet another story started. ^^"

Ever since the sale had gone through, Andrew had felt like something was off. 

Now, standing in front of the huge house, the foreboding sensation increased. It was basically a mansion, big enough to have enough rooms for all nine of them. Some of them had been studies or lounges, but Wymack had spent a good few months fixing the place up for them while their practices led to nowhere. As far as Andrew had been told, two living rooms or lounges had been smashed through to make one huge den. Which, considering he didn’t really want to be in the same room with the Other Lot, was going to make playing video games a chore. There was also a basement and an attic that Wymack hadn’t really done anything with. Apparently, he hadn’t even gone in them because, ‘what do you lot need with that much space?’

And they got all of that for the cheap, cheap price of twenty-five thousand dollars, paid for through a combination of the college, Wymack, Allison, and Matt’s mom.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the front of it, a real white-picket-fence type place, if not for how huge the estate was. He took a drag from his cigarette and let his eyes linger on the smoke for a moment. His ‘teammates’ moved around him, dragging suitcases or hefting boxes. Aaron flicked him a black look as he made his way in, struggling under his burden of his own bag as well as one of Andrew’s bags. 

A month or so before this, the Foxes’ Athletes’ House had had a fire. No-one knew how, but the fire investigators had told them it was likely faulty wiring that had been overtaxed. But Andrew wasn’t so sure they’d done a proper investigation. Baltimore was pretty close to the Ravens’ hang-out, after all. Still, they had been lucky to get this house.

Or unlucky, if the feeling in Andrew’s bones was any indication.

“Andrew!” Nicky whined. “This one’s heavy.”

Turning, Andrew gave Nicky a blank look and stared at the box of his textbooks and video games. He knew that it was about the same weight as the rest of his bags, so Nicky was clearly trying to get him to help. Huffing smoke out of his nose, Andrew dropped the butt and stamped on it before grabbing the box from Nicky’s hands and easily hefted it to his shoulder. Nicky’s smile and thanks were ignored as Andrew spun on his heel and stalked up to the door.

As soon as he stepped over the threshold, a shiver ran down Andrew’s spine. It was a strange sense of dread, made worse by not knowing why he felt like that. He had felt it before, of course, when he was a child and he huddled under the covers, waiting. That, at least, had become familiar; this was utterly unfamiliar and it unnerved him enough that he had to step away from Nicky.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the feeling was gone. 

_Interesting,_ he thought. Then Nicky passed him by and Andrew put it from his mind. He had to find a room with a door that locked to dump his stuff in. There had to be one in the massive house. 

The inside of it was as impressive and, frankly, nauseating as the outside. Beyond the front door was a wide space which was meant to be a foyer or hallway. On Andrew’s right, there was an archway into the huge den space they now had for socialising, an unfortunate thing to have in his opinion. Glancing through the door showed Andrew a cluster of chairs and beanbags surrounding a fairly sizable TV. Bookcases lined the walls, unfilled and forlorn. There were doors on the left of the hall, too. One of them led to a large enough kitchen for several people to be in it at once and even contained two stoves and ovens. The other must have been the dining room that Andrew had heard Dan going on about. Directly in front of Andrew, though, was a wide staircase that curved upwards and around to the landing. There would only be a railing between Andrew and the floor below and he stared at it for a moment, unsure if he liked the fact that he would be able to _feel_ within the company of the others.

Matt stood at the top of the stairs. “Hey, guys!” he said, gesturing at Andrew and Nicky to follow him. “We’ve all already picked out rooms and the rest of them are for you to choose from. Coach has put locks on all the doors, the keys are in them, and there’s a few bathrooms, too.”

Andrew started up the stairs. Of course Wymack had added locks to the door. In that case, it didn’t really matter which room he had, though one with a window seat would be good. 

Behind him, Nicky followed him up the stairs. He was chatting over Andrew’s head at Matt about decorating. Andrew heard Nicky try to entice him into conversation but he ignored him. There was only so much of his cousin’s chatter that he could take, and he’d just spent a car ride with him. 

Just as they reached the top, Aaron appeared. He glanced at Andrew and Nicky and made his way past them. Kevin also appeared around the corner, seemingly fascinated by the house itself. That made Andrew raise an eyebrow - was this house secretly something to do with Exy?

Instead, it seemed like Kevin’s other passion - history - was rearing its annoying head. “This place must be pretty old,” he said as Andrew and the others approached. “And, even if it’s not, there’s a lot of antiques in the hall so we have to be careful.”

Now, that was _very_ interesting. “Whoever owned this before us left all their stuff?” Andrew said.

Kevin’s expression of wonder dissolved into a frown. “Yeah… It makes no sense. And, if there’s stuff like this around, there’s probably more things in the attic-”

Apart from Andrew, the rest gathered on the landing all jumped at a sudden bang. It sounded like a door slamming. Andrew looked between their surprised and confused faces before stalking down the hall in the direction of the sound. Turning the corner, all he saw were rows of closed doors - save for one, halfway down it. That one was open just a sliver and Andrew had the impression of a child peering out at him, despite there being nothing of the sort.

Narrowing his eyes at it, Andrew moved closer. He paused outside of the room and set the box on a little, decorative table that shook from the contact. Just as he reached out to the handle, there was a commotion behind him and he looked over his shoulder to see Kevin, Matt and Nicky all peering around the corner. He gave them a baleful look.

“Is it safe?” Nicky asked. “Is the house falling apart?”

Rolling his eyes, Andrew turned back to the door and pushed it open. The room beyond was empty save for a flat-pack bed from Ikea that was propped against the wall beside the window and its seat opposite the door. Light flickered over the navy carpet as the sun tried to reach through the branches of a tree outside. A desk had either been in the room since before they bought the house or had been built by Wymack before he gave up on furnishing the room. Childish wallpaper was on three of the walls: dark and light blue stripes with a line of teddy bears and toy soldiers. To Andrew’s right was a built in closet that took up the entirety of the wall. One of the doors had been pushed slightly open so Andrew made his way over.

He stood in front of it and peered into the dimness. Unable to see anything, he reached out, eyes narrowed. For some reason, it seemed to take an age for Andrew to grip the edge of the door. Before he could open it, there was a clatter behind him and he quickly looked over his shoulder. 

Nicky stood in the doorway, nervously hanging onto one of Andrew’s bags. “Andrew? Is there something in there?”

Without answering, Andrew turned back to the closet and slid the door open. The wooden door clattered as it folded in on itself. There was nothing within it save for a rail to hang things on and plastic boxes that still had the Ikea stickers on them. He stared at it for a moment, then turned to Nicky, brow raised.

“Huh,” said Nicky, peering around the room. “Maybe the door isn’t straight?” he suggested. “But, hey, this must’ve been the kid’s room!”

“What kid?” asked Andrew, sharply.

“Uh, I don’t know,” Nicky replied, blinking owlishly. “I just figured there was a kid at one point.” He nodded at the wallpaper.”

“Right,” said Andrew, looking around.

“Anyway, is this the room you want? It’s, like, right in the middle of the two bathrooms so you’ll probably be last in all the time, unless you’re up earlier than us. And this side of the house has more sunlight.” Nicky paused for breath and peered at the window. “Though the tree sort of blocks it. Wonder why they put the kid in this room? That’s the most obvious escape route when they wanted to sneak out at night.”

“Because every eight year old wants to sneak out at night,” said Andrew, dryly.

Nicky paused and blinked at him. “Oh. Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, if you want this room, we can redecorate. Strip off the wallpaper, paint it black…” Nicky turned a grin on Andrew, clearly referencing Andrew’s clothing choices. 

Andrew levelled a look at him. “Give me that and get out,” he ordered.

“Ah. Okay. You don’t need to be so mean about it!”

Thankfully, Nicky dropped the bags and backed out of the room. Once he was gone, Andrew looked around the room. It was as good a place as any to sleep - when he could, anyway. His eyes roamed over the empty closet and landed on the closed one. He paused for a moment; whatever had caused the door to slam like that couldn’t be in there, could it? For a moment, Andrew remained still with his indecision. Give in to his curiosity or shove it away? In the end, he stepped over to it and grabbed hold of the handle. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

There was nothing there.

Huffing an annoyed breath, Andrew rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. He paused when he noticed that there _was_ something in the closet. It was small and tucked into the corner, its colours faded. Andrew frowned at it and bent to pick it up. As he closed his fingers around it, a sudden chill made him shiver. Jolting upright, he spun to take in the room, convinced that someone was watching him. But there was no-one there so he looked down at the thing in his hand.

A children’s toy, a little figurine, lay sadly in Andrew’s hand. It had a helmet and a green jersey with the number **1** on it in faded black. Only just visible was a little shamrock which sat snug on the toy’s chest. Across its body it held a racquet - an Exy racquet. With Andrew’s memory, he was able to dredge up the smudged face that should have been there. This was Kayleigh Day, Kevin’s mother. Whoever had lived here was an Exy fan. Andrew snorted; it was as if he couldn’t escape the game, no matter what happened. 

Briefly, he wondered how the estate agent, Wymack and anyone else in this house could have missed it. Then he shrugged the thoughts away and placed the figurine on the desk. A reminder, he supposed, of someone he would never know.

* * *

Andrew might have given more thought to the figurine if certain events hadn’t happened later that night.

Since it was their first time in the new house, Dan decided that they should do a team bonding movie night. “And it’ll let us get a chance to test the TV,” she had added at dinner, grinning widely.

“Pass,” Andrew said.

Dan sighed and folded her arms, frowning at him. “Come on, Andrew. This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day.”

“Yes. It’s suspicious.”

“Maybe it’s fate,” Renee suggested with a serene smile.

“Bullshit,” said Seth. “No such thing,” he added when Allison shot him a black look.

“Maybe it’s luck,” Matt suggested, holding up his hands as if to ward off a fight.

“Whatever,” Andrew said, trying to dismiss the stupid conversation. He stood from the table, intent on finding himself some ice cream.

“Andrew,” said Renee, stopping him in his tracks. He glanced down at her. “If you spend some time with us, you can choose the movie we’re going to watch.”

“What?!” Allison exclaimed. “No! It should be put to a vote.”

Since Andrew didn’t believe in repeating himself, he gestured with his empty plate at Renee before he left the dining room. Everything was relatively normal on his walk down the hall, but it all changed when he walked into the kitchen. For some reason, the temperature dropped dramatically when Andrew stepped inside; it felt more like he was in a freezer than the place where Nicky and Matt had been cooking for everyone. (There was going to be a rota, apparently. Andrew wondered how they were going to try to force him to participate.) 

Brow furrowed, Andrew set down the plate and went in search of the thermostat which, apparently, was a fancy one situated in the cupboard under the stairs. It also housed the old computers and stuff which connected to the security cameras. Since there was currently no need for them, Wymack had decided not to attempt to figure them out. Andrew had found that odd when Dan had mentioned it at dinner; shouldn’t the estate agent or whoever had lived in this house beforehand updated it at some point?

He opened the cupboard door before he could get too stuck on that train of thought. Inside, the computers and screens were dark. It was also larger than any other cupboard under the stairs that Andrew had ever seen. Glancing around, he noticed that there were some lights set into the wall and, squinting at it in the dim light, he realised that there were gauges above each one. Assuming that it was the thermostats, Andrew glanced around for a light switch and found none. In fact, when he glanced up, he spotted the real problem - there was no bulb.

Rolling his eyes, Andrew stepped into the cupboard and left the door as wide as possible to let in enough light. A shiver ran down his spine but he forcibly ignored it. Memories threatened to resurface, but Andrew took another step until he was in front of the tiny gauges. He squinted at them. As far as he could see, all of the gauges were at the same temperature, around 70⁰F. Each of the gauges had little plaques with words on them, though most of them were null and void. However, there was still one that said ‘ **Kitchen** ’ - and it was also at 70⁰F.

So why was the kitchen so cold?

Dread crept up on him and Andrew tried to shrug it off. Maybe someone had left a window open. Though, he knew as soon as he thought it that that wasn’t right. Instead, his mind jumped to another scenario. If someone were to deliberately make the room cold, then the first place anyone would go to would be the cupboard. And… 

Slowly, Andrew turned and stared at the door, waiting for it to slam shut, maybe due their intruder from earlier, if that had been what had happened. Maybe the house had secret passageways and that was how they had disappeared in his new room. But, as he watched the rectangle of light, nothing happened. There was just a strangely heavy silence, almost expectant.

Since nothing was happening, Andrew sighed at how stupid he was being and took the couple of steps necessary to get past the door. Just as he reached the doorway, he winced as his cousin’s loud voice called out for him. He sighed again and stepped out, leaving the door open for the moment - if the kitchen was still freezing, he would have to go back to try to sort it out. 

When he turned towards the kitchen, Nicky was there. “What were you doing?” Nicky demanded. “I thought you’d come to get ice cream or something.”

“I did-” Andrew began - and the door behind him slammed shut.

Nicky jumped and yelped in surprise. Andrew tensed and turned to frown at the door. Nothing seemed to have changed from a few minutes ago, but he crossed to it and yanked it open. Once more, there was nothing inside bar the old computers and the thermostat. After he glowered at the empty space for a moment, Andrew slammed the door shut and stomped away, brushing past Nicky.

“Um, maybe the whole house is on a hill and…” Nicky trailed off when Andrew flicked an unimpressed look at him over his shoulder. Grimacing, Nicky ducked his head, grumbling to himself.

Andrew made his way to the kitchen and stepped inside. Nicky followed like a lost puppy but Andrew ignored him. This time, the kitchen was at a decent temperature. With narrowed eyes, Andrew scanned the room. There was nothing out of place- No, there was one thing. 

The plate that Andrew had placed beside one of the sinks had disappeared. Andrew walked over to where it should have been and spotted it _inside_ the sink. Not only that, whoever had put it in there had left it to soak. He stared at it. If what seemed to be happening - not that he believed it - was actually happening, then their apparent fellow lodger was rather conscientious. Then again, this could be explained.

“Did you do this?” Andrew demanded of Nicky, turning to stare impassively at him.

Blinking, Nicky shook his head. “No? Didn’t you?”

Turning back to the sink, Andrew stared at the plate. Then he heard movement from further into the house as the others drifted away from the dining room, and Andrew decided to put it from his mind. He turned on his heel and stalked to the freezer. His ice cream was waiting for him and he plucked it from its place before he escaped the post-dinner congregation in the kitchen.

* * *

Apparently, since Andrew hadn’t said no, they were all having a movie night. Aaron didn’t seem pleased, but Andrew decided that wasn’t his problem, especially since Aaron was never usually happy in his presence. On the other end of the spectrum, Nicky was ecstatic, chattering away and getting on everybody’s nerves. Andrew ignored him as he ate more ice cream and glared Kevin into silence when he tried to lecture Andrew on junk food.

“What’re we going to watch?” Nicky asked, excitedly.

Before anyone could speak, Renee turned to Andrew where he was slumped in a beanbag. “Andrew? What would you like to watch?”

“Wait,” said Allison, pushing herself up off Seth's shoulder to stare at Renee in betrayal. “You were being serious about letting Andrew pick?”

“Well,” said Matt, reasonably. “We always have movie nights. So we all pick movies all the time.” He gestured at his lot who were on one side of the TV. “And I’m not sure I want to know what Kevin or Nicky will pick.”

“And you just don’t care about me,” Aaron muttered.

Matt visibly winced. “Well, uh…”

“We do care about you,” Dan protested. “Of course we do. We’re a team.”

Andrew snorted. “Of course. A _team_.”

Dan frowned at him. “Look-” she began.

“Wait!” Matt exclaimed, grinning widely. “Why doesn’t Andrew pick the genre and Aaron pick the movie?”

“What if I want to pick something we don’t have?” Aaron grumbled. Clearly he was just trying to be difficult now. Andrew fought the urge to roll his eyes.

“I got us a subscription to that new app, along with Netflix and Disney Plus,” Allison explained, gesturing to the set-up under the TV. “It should have most movies on it.”

“Then, I think Matt’s idea sounds good,” said Renee, calmly. “What sort of movie would you like to watch?” She looked between Andrew and Aaron, who were as far away from each other as was possible while Aaron kept within Andrew’s protective circle. 

Andrew looked around the room and at all their curious faces. He had no doubt that they thought that he was about to give them some grand insight into the inner workings of his mind. Instead, he thought for a moment, trying to think of the worst possible genre for them to watch in this new house. His mouth twitched as he settled on one. “Horror,” he declared and stuck a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

“What?!” screeched Nicky. “No! We can’t watch a horror _here_! Right now! I’ll never get any sleep.”

“The doors _do_ slam an awful lot,” Dan conceded, looking up at the ceiling as if she could see them.

“So?” said Aaron. “Ghosts aren’t real. It’s just a movie.”

Kevin leaned forward on his armchair. “Are there horror Exy movies?”

“Oh, right, ’cause anything like that is going to be any good,” Seth retorted, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be wusses. Put one on so I don’t need to listen to these assholes anymore.”

“No-one asked you, Seth,” Nicky said with an airy quality to his voice. “We get to choose, not you.”

“Well, get on with it, then!” Seth snapped, glowering at Nicky. 

Aaron, who had been on his phone, barely glanced up when he spoke. “The Conjuring.”

“Noo!” whined Nicky. “Don’t encourage him, Aaron!”

“That’s what I want,” Aaron replied, glowering at Nicky.

“Okay, okay!” Nicky raised his hands in surrender. “Can we even get it, tho-?”

“Yup,” said Allison, the remote in her hand and an app loading on the games console. “I’m sure it’s on this.”

“Urgh,” said Nicky. “I need a cushion.” Renee kindly handed him one and, after Nicky had taken it and he had smiled gratefully at her, he muttered, “And Erik.”

“A horror movie will be fun,” said Dan, snuggling into Matt’s side. She turned her head slightly to smile at him and Matt wrapped his arms more tightly around her. Both of them smiled and they kissed, quick and chaste. Andrew fought not to roll his eyes and to remain blank-faced at the sight. Dan pulled back and said, cheerfully, “It’ll be great snuggling time.”

“Urgh!” Nicky repeated. “That’s okay if you’ve got the people to snuggle with right here. Oh, I’m going to have to call Erik after this…”

“Great,” muttered Aaron, voice laden with sarcasm.

“Anyway!” said Allison, cutting across their grumblings. “It’s ready. Everyone shut up.”

And so they started the movie. Andrew ignored the chatter that ebbed and flowed as the others discussed the story and whether they would move into a house that was so isolated. He thought that was ironic, considering where they were. Then again, they were still in Baltimore and not in the middle of nowhere, so he supposed they had some sort of a point.

Everything was normal for a while. Nicky repeatedly made aborted attempts to clutch at Andrew from his own beanbag. Kevin tried to point out historical inaccuracies. Aaron texted his not-a-girlfriend every so often. Allison cackled at something stupid the others were discussing. Matt and Dan snuggled. Renee didn’t flinch at anything on the screen. Andrew ate the sweet popcorn, wondering if it was time to get some more ice cream.

And then the characters went down to the basement and things changed. Almost as soon as the characters opened the door, the lights flickered. Everyone stilled and glanced around. Matt grimaced but was the first to suggest an explanation.

“Maybe we should get Wymack to check the wiring?” he said.

“Right-” Dan began.

The TV flickered. When it came up with an image again, the characters were opening the door to the basement once more. Allison frowned and grabbed the remote. “What the-?” she began before the room was plunged into darkness. 

Nicky screeched, his hand grabbing at Andrew’s beanbag. Dan and Allison squealed. A light appeared from Renee’s part of the room as she used her phone to make a torch. As soon as there was some light, everything stopped. Andrew could hear Nicky’s harsh breathing. 

“What the fuck?” breathed Matt.

“Shit,” said Seth, sounding a little strained. Andrew wondered if Allison was squeezing the life out of him. “This better not be a sign or I’m fucking outta here.”

“What should we do?” Nicky asked, sounding flustered and upset.

“I can go check the fuses,” Matt suggested. There was movement and rustling - and the lights came back on. The TV and games console came back on as well, though there was a fizzing noise, a pop and the smell of burning plastic. “Shit!” Matt exclaimed, and jolted towards it. With a harsh yank, Matt pulled it from the socket and the fizzling died out. For a moment, the image of the basement door from the film flickered on the screen before it went black.

“Jesus! What the fuck was that?” Seth demanded.

There was silence in answer. Then, as if there was some unknown signal, everyone started moving and talking at once. All the guys shifted so they could take a closer look at the ruined games console. Meanwhile, Dan and Allison clutched at each other. Renee handed over their drinks in an attempt to soothe them. Since their movie night seemed to be ruined, Andrew grabbed the bowl of popcorn and stood, ready to have time to himself in his new room.

As he made his way to the doorway, he heard Allison complaining. “This is ridiculous! That thing was new. Someone is going to pay for this - it could have started a fire.”

“We don’t really know who’s to blame - or if it’s anyone’s fault at all,” Matt pointed out, checking on the TV, presumably for burn marks.

Just as Andrew stepped through the door, he heard movement and his name. He ignored it and made his way to the kitchen. If someone came after him, he would need the ice cream as well as the popcorn. That was how Dan caught him in the hall before he headed upstairs. 

“You don’t need to leave,” she said when he looked at her. “We can find something to watch on TV or use another console.”

“No,” said Andrew, brushing past her.

“Come on, Andrew,” Dan called after him, sounding exasperated. Good. It would disabuse the idea of them being _friends_ . “Don’t do this again this year. _Please_.”

Andrew stopped at the utterance of the hated word. He turned his head slightly to give her a hard look. “You know how I feel about that word,” he said, voice low. Dan grimaced and, convinced she would say no more about it, he left.

Moving through the house alone after what had happened was a bit unsettling. He tried to ignore it, annoyed that this place could make him _feel_. But it was hard to do so as his mind worked. The house had been cheaper than it should have been. There were too many things left behind, as if something stopped the estate agent or bank from removing them. Doors slammed shut too easily. The kitchen had been cold. And the flickering lights and TV… 

Still, though he felt uneasy in the place, there were probably a myriad of reasons for what they were experiencing. This place was evidently old. Things probably didn’t work too well in it anymore. And, if the estate agent had had it for long enough, someone might be losing money by keeping the price too high. The possessions, though… Andrew couldn’t think of a reason that anyone would leave their things behind like that, especially when they inevitably heard of the college athletes moving in.

Shaking his head at his interest, he quelled it as he reached his room. Allison had set up a router and they had Wi-Fi. He would watch something inane as he ate his treats in his half-unpacked room. It wouldn’t tire him out enough to beat the insomnia from moving to a new place - he would be waking up at every slight noise of the settling house - but it would give him something to do.

Andrew precariously balanced the bowl of popcorn on the ice cream tub so he could unlock his door and shoved the door open with only a little difficulty He kicked it shut behind him and turned to put the bowl and tub onto the desk while he locked it behind him. Just as he set them down, he froze. The figurine had been sitting on it before he had left for dinner; now, it was gone, vanished into thin air. Andrew clenched his jaw.

Someone must have been in his room.

Reaching into his pocket, Andrew fully intended on calling Wymack and demanding to know how many keys he had cut for the room doors. While Andrew could pick the locks, the others likely couldn’t, so his things should have been safe. He spun on his heel as he tapped on his phone; the others had been frightened at the strange happenings in the living area, but they were going to be even more frightened when he stormed down to confront them about this, to discover who had managed to surprise him.

However, he stopped when he spotted what was on the back of his door. There was a message waiting for him in large red letters. Having just been watching part of a horror movie, his first thought was that it must be blood. Then he realised that it looked more like it had been done by a crayon or lipstick. Whoever had written it had made it take up a majority of the door at Andrew’s eye level, the letters huge. The handwriting was a scrawl so he dismissed the girls - he had seen their looping, curling, matter-of-fact writing before. Everyone else, though… Any one of them could have done this, but the best bet was Seth. Andrew scowled at the message. If this was a prank, he was not impressed. If it was something else…

His face returned to his usual blankness as he eyed the word written there, wondering what this could mean, wondering if there was more to the house than he thought.

**R U N**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The word in the end is supposed to be huge and in red and in Amatic SC font, but I can't get HTML to work for me and I give up. Someone tell me how to get it and I'll fix it but you'll just have to put up with it for now. :'(


	2. The Knives

After the typical sleepless night - especially since he was in a new place, even with the security of a lock - Andrew had decided to take action rather than ignore the message. Obviously, one of the others had left it there and Andrew was sure he knew who. It wasn’t Dan, Renee or Allison’s idea of a prank and Matt wasn’t the kind of person to do something so cruel, nor would he invade people’s spaces. Andrew’s lot would do nothing like this because they knew how he would react. That left one person and it was no secret that there was no love lost between Andrew and Seth. 

The message itself, though, Andrew couldn’t work out. Why would someone want him to run? What good would it do Seth to say that now? They’d be starting their practices again and they needed every member of the team they could get. There was one other explanation that made sense to Andrew and would absolve Seth, but it couldn’t be possible and he dismissed the thought.

When morning dawned, Andrew made his way to the closest bathroom, had a shower and got dressed. The house was silent save for the creaking of old wood. Shadows loomed over him as he moved along the corridors, but he ignored them as he got ready for the day. Downstairs, he grabbed some cereal and went into the den to eat. 

An hour later, the rest of the team began to wake. Others descended to the kitchen for food, still dressed in pyjamas and various sleepwear, and Renee popped into the den. Andrew glanced at her but made it clear that he was in no mood to talk. If he did, she would attempt to talk him out of his plan. Unfortunately, said plan couldn’t go into action, since Seth had still not appeared.

It was when Andrew had taken his bowl back to the kitchen and was retreating to the den that Seth finally appeared. Andrew spotted him coming down the stairs and changed his trajectory. Seth didn’t seem to sense the danger; he was yawning into his fist as he scratched his ass through his faded sweatpants. He only seemed to notice when Andrew grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and slammed him into the wall.

“What the fuck?!” Seth shouted, suddenly awake and angry.

“You were in my room,” Andrew said, calm in the face of Seth’s ridiculous anger.

“What? No, I wasn’t,” snapped Seth, trying to push himself away from the wall. Andrew gripped his t-shirt tighter and shoved him backwards so that he his head thumped against it. “Seriously, fuck off!”

The commotion drew the attention of the others who appeared out of the den and the kitchen in a flurry of movement. Renee was the only one who got close to them, obviously concerned about one of her people. But Andrew didn’t move, blocking her access to Seth with his body; he knew she wouldn’t touch him. That didn’t stop the others from crowding around them. The upperclassmen stood closer to the kitchen while his people broke away from them and stood closer to the den, out of the line of fire.

“What the hell is going on?” Dan demanded.

“This asshole-!” Seth began.

Andrew jostled Seth to make him shut up. “Someone,” he said to the occupants of the hall, “broke into my room and wrote a message on my door.”

“What message?” asked Matt. When Andrew glanced at him, he could see that he looked equal parts concerned and interested.

“How do you know it was Seth?” Nicky asked.

“My door was locked,” Andrew said in explanation, returning his attention to Seth’s furious face.

“What, and you think I picked the lock?” Seth demanded.

“Who else would bother with something so asinine?” Andrew retorted.

“He’s not wrong,” Aaron piped up.

Allison clicked her tongue. “You can’t just accuse someone like that,” she protested.

“Get off me,” Seth snarled, reaching up to grab Andrew. Before he could, Andrew let go of him and stepped out of his space. “Fuck off,” Seth added as he picked at his t-shirt to smooth out the new wrinkles. 

“Stay out of my room,” Andrew warned Seth and the rest of them. “And you can wash off that message.”

“I didn’t do it, asshole!”

“What was the message?” Renee asked, frowning at Andrew.

Shrugging, Andrew told them. “‘Run’.”

Seth snorted. “Whoever did that obviously has a sense of humour.”

“Sure,” said Aaron, sarcastically. “That’s hilarious.”

“Well, we’d have to be,” said Seth, glowering at them, “to deal with you lot.”

“‘You lot’?” asked Nicky. “What’s that mean?”

“You Monsters,” Seth said, sneering at them. “The psycho, the asshole, the fag, and the-”

Andrew didn’t bother with a warning. Once again, he grabbed Seth by the t-shirt and shoved him against the wall, this time harder. Before anyone could react, Andrew slipped a knife out of his armband and stuck it against Seth’s sternum. Behind him, there were gasps, but he ignored them. His name was called, but he paid no attention to that either.

“I don’t like repeating myself,” he said, his face blank as he stared down Seth’s fear and anger. “But I will say it again since it hasn’t penetrated your thick skull. I don’t like that word.”

Renee moved into Andrew’s line of sight. “Andrew. Don’t.” Her eyes silently pleaded with him, though Renee knew that Andrew didn’t like the word ‘please’ and so didn’t say it. He stared back at her, unmoved.

“He needs to be reminded,” Andrew told her. 

“Not like this.”

“Andrew,” Nicky whimpered. “You can’t kill him.”

“You’re insane!” snarled Allison, who Andrew could see was hovering close by. 

“It’s too early for this!” Dan exclaimed. “Stop it.”

“Should I call Coach?” asked Matt.

“Enough,” said Kevin. “We’ve got things we’ve got to do before Coach will let us back onto the court-”

Kevin was cut off by a loud shattering noise. It was a surprise to Andrew - who, as a whole, disliked surprises - and he jerked back. His knife caught on Seth’s shirt and it ripped, but Andrew ignored the tearing noise and the yelp of protest from the man. Instead, he spun in the direction of his strange little family, his eyes roaming over all of them. None of them seemed harmed, but they had all flinched away from the hall that led to the back of the house. Everyone stared down it for a moment before Andrew moved decisively, stepping up to Nicky. He looked his cousin over and found no injuries. Then he patted at Aaron, who shrugged him off with a scowl, and did the same to Kevin, who silently allowed it.

“We’re okay, Andrew,” Kevin said, though his voice was shaky.

“Apart from this heart attack!” Nicky cried out. He clutched at his chest dramatically. “What the hell was that and is Matt going to catch me in his strong arms if I faint?”

“Urgh,” said Aaron, shoving Nicky out of the way. 

It opened up the way for Andrew to get past them and he took it. He immediately saw what had made the sound. Halfway along the hall was a table that was covered in and surrounded by broken pieces of ceramic. One of the antique vases had shattered, the larger pieces still showing the curves. Andrew stared at it, his eyes roving over the scene in an attempt to figure out what had happened. Then he turned his gaze to Nicky, waiting for Nicky to say something; if he waited long enough, Nicky would either admit that he’d knocked it over or would give him another explanation.

“It wasn’t me!” Nicky exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender. “And it wasn’t Kevin or Aaron, either. So… How did that happen?” He frowned at the mess.

Matt, who was annoyingly tall enough to see over Andrew and Aaron’s heads, said, “Maybe our presence has meant a change in temperature. It probably put pressure on the vase and it just… shattered?”

“Makes no sense,” Seth grunted. “But I’m not cleaning it up if I’m gonna be accused of wandering into other people’s rooms.” And he turned on his heel and stalked off to the kitchen, sulking. 

The girls came forward and Renee frowned while the other two looked puzzled. “I’m not sure if Matt’s right,” she said, “but maybe we should move the other vases somewhere safe so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.”

Everyone else agreed readily, but Andrew only turned to stare at the vase. Slamming doors, cold rooms, the figurine and message, a shattering vase… Something very odd was happening in this house.

* * *

Later, the team had cleaned up and moved on. They all had a lot of unpacking to do, so most of them were sequestered in their rooms, opening wardrobes and drawers. Andrew did the same, though he was quickly finished. Most of his things were clothes or books; none of his possessions contained anything of the personal sort. However, he knew that the others would try to rope him into helping them decorate the den or drag him into a conversation about chores, so he stayed in the room, reading a book. He tried his best to ignore the urge to search the place for the figurine until, finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and he left the room instead.

Before he had gotten more than a few steps down the corridor, another door opened. Aaron exited his own room and paused, looking over at Andrew. They stared at each other for a moment before both of them headed towards the stairs. Neither of them spoke until they reached the landing above the stairs. That was where Aaron stopped and looked at Andrew. The latter stopped to look at his brother, staring impassively as he waited to hear what Aaron had to say.

“This place…” Aaron began but quickly trailed off.

“What about it?” asked Andrew, though there was no inflection in his tone.

Aaron frowned. “There’s something about it that freaks me out.”

“Oh?”

For a moment, it looked as though Aaron was going to elaborate. Instead, he shook his head and shot a glare at Andrew. “Forget it,” he snapped, likely annoyed at Andrew’s indifference.

However, if even  _ Aaron _ had noticed something… 

Andrew put it from his mind as they descended the stairs. When they were halfway down them, Kevin appeared from the den. Even where he was, Andrew could see that Kevin was irritated, his frown marring his otherwise attractive face. It was probably something Exy related, so Andrew ignored him and followed Aaron as they both headed towards the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Kevin spotted them and stepped into Andrew’s path. Narrowing his eyes at the idiot, Andrew stopped and stared at him, waiting for Kevin to spit it out. Aaron, meanwhile, rolled his eyes and kept going, well aware that whatever Kevin had to say likely had no bearing on Aaron’s life. Andrew glanced at him for a moment, watching him go and sorely tempted to step around Kevin and leave him to his sulking.

Kevin opened his mouth to speak, however, and Andrew waited for him to draw a frenzied breath. “They’re not letting us on the court,” Kevin snapped. “They want to get this house ‘sorted’ first since we don’t have classes, so Coach isn’t letting us go. He took my keys!”

“Is he here?” Andrew asked, wanting to interrogate Wymack about the house.

“No, he left a while ago; he’s got board meetings. Dan’s got a whiteboard in the den to write down cho-”

There was a yelp from the kitchen, a noise somewhere between a squeal and a yell. Andrew wasn’t sure who was in there, but he knew that Aaron was. He planted a hand on Kevin’s chest and pushed him aside, ignoring his wordless protest at the treatment. With measured strides, Andrew made his way to the kitchen, ignoring Dan’s appearance at the den’s door. When he reached the doorway, he saw that Aaron was standing just inside the room, absolutely still. Andrew couldn’t see if anyone else was inside, so he stepped forward, his gaze searching.

Before he could register the emptiness, something flew past his head. It was so close that his hair ruffled in the wake of it. Behind him, far too close, was a dull thunk. Andrew stilled and looked around himself. Again, he realised the place was empty save for him and Aaron. A wooden chopping block had two knives missing. He turned and saw that a knife was buried in the doorframe, close to his head. Another was abandoned on the unit just behind Aaron, but Andrew surmised that the knife had probably been thrown at him - or, at least, that was what it seemed.

“What the fuck?” gasped Aaron, turning confused eyes to Andrew.

“What happened?” demanded Dan, who had arrived in the kitchen.

Aaron whirled on her. “These knives just flew at us out of nowhere!” he exclaimed, gesturing at them. Dan’s eyes widened as she spotted the knife buried in the doorframe.

Andrew poked at the knife and, when it didn’t move, gripped it firmly by the handle and yanked it out. “It’s like the slamming doors,” he said, perhaps a touch sarcastically. “We must be on a hill.”

“Oh, come off it,” said Dan with a weak laugh. Her eyes, though, darted around them, probably wondering exactly what Andrew and Aaron were now both thinking, what they all must be suspecting by this point. However, instead of acknowledging it, Dan said, “Seth probably set up some sort of prank, or something.”

“You think throwing knives at us is a joke?!” Aaron snapped. “What kind of psycho does that?”

Unfortunately for Dan, she couldn’t help glancing at Andrew. He gave her a look and spun on his heel, stomping towards the stairs. Kevin had been hovering just beyond the door, his eyes wide. “Where are you going?” he demanded.

“To find Seth,” Andrew said, lightly.

Dan obviously heard him, because she hurried after him. “Wait, Andrew, don’t. This will only escalate. I don’t want to live in a house where people are fighting all the time.”

Andrew stopped and spun to face her. He put a mocking hand on his heart, though he didn’t smile. “Oh, captain, my captain. If you didn’t want that, then you shouldn’t have moved in with the Foxes.”

With an exasperated sigh, Dan said, “Andrew. You’ve already accused him once today. Let’s go with the innocent until proven guilty philosophy, okay? And I’ll talk to everyone later, make sure they know that these sorts of pranks won’t be tolerated.”

‘Innocent until proven guilty’ in this situation was a shade too close to being a ‘misunderstanding’ for Andrew’s liking. He was very tempted to draw a knife on her, but he admitted to himself that it wouldn’t help matters. Talking with Wymack about the house would be more productive, though that would apparently have to wait. Still, he needed to get out of there before he did stab someone, so he wordlessly stepped around Dan and headed for the front door instead. People protested behind him, but he ignored them and let the door slam shut.

* * *

Eventually, night fell. Andrew had gone for a drive, picked up cigarettes and ice cream, eaten and smoked some, cleaned his door and, quite recently, endured a lecture from Dan. She had gathered everyone into the den and had made a rather pointed speech about getting along in the new house and no more dangerous pranks. Seth had, predictably, protested. Neither Andrew nor Aaron said anything but, when Andrew caught Aaron’s eye, he could see his frown. Andrew was sure that Aaron didn’t believe that Seth had set up a prank, but Andrew wasn’t about to share his suspicions.

He had put up with their idea of socialising for long enough by that point, and he stood up from the couch. Nicky tried to entice him to stay, as did Dan, ostensibly for more ‘team bonding’. Andrew ignored them all and headed for his room instead. Along the way, he mused over the situation once more.

Firstly, the house had been too cheap, as he had thought multiple times since Wymack told them about it. Then there were the doors; they should definitely not be slamming closed on their own. He had made sure to walk around outside when he went for his drive and he could tell that they weren’t on a hill. Next, cold spots with no explanation. The little figurine and the message; that could have been done by one of the others, but it didn’t seem like something that any of them would do, apart from Seth. After today, Andrew didn’t think it was as likely as he had that morning. A smashed vase and flying knives were other things to add to the growing list of oddities. 

All of it added up to one thing, and Andrew didn’t want to voice that opinion to anyone, not even himself.

Thankfully, nothing strange happened to him when he climbed the stairs or made his way down the hall. Nothing moved or jumped out or made a noise. Andrew still eyed every item that he passed and he stared at the paintings he had dismissed the day before. One of them had been damaged and he paused, squinting at a family - or, at least, their bodies. None of their faces were visible under a brown stain, though Andrew noted the grip one of them had on the arm of a small boy. It looked far too tight to be comfortable.

Putting it out of his mind, Andrew reached his room and unlocked the door. He swung it open without ceremony and took a step inside. Then he paused, staring at what was in his room. Rather, not what. Who. And, as soon as he realised what he was looking at, they disappeared.

Thankfully, Andrew had an eidetic memory, and he was able to stare at his bed where a boy his age had sat. He had red hair and blue eyes - at least, the quick glimpse had left that impression. Whoever he was, he had been wearing ratty old clothes, his sweatpants and baggy t-shirt both grey. His shoes were worn and suitable for running, so Andrew supposed he had been exercising. And he had been sitting with arms wrapped around his knees, staring straight at Andrew when he’d opened the door.

In his place, something small and green lay among the folds of the bedsheets. Andrew didn’t need to step closer to see what it was, but he swung his door shut behind him and made his way over, anyway. He was right. The figurine was back, left behind by the young man who had been there moments before. It must have belonged to him, once upon a time. 

Frowning at the way he had accepted the existence of the redhead in his life, Andrew spun on his heel, intent on placing the figurine on the desk. Instead he stopped, his eyes caught on another message on the back of the door. He had already cleaned the previous message off, loath as he was to let Seth into his room, and this one had taken its place. But there was no lipstick or pen used this time. Instead, the message had been carved into the door, perhaps with one of those flying knives, though none seemed to be visible in the room. Andrew stared at it for a moment before doing the exact opposite and locking himself in, prepared for another sleepless night with the knowledge that someone else could come into his room anytime they liked. It was a simple message and Andrew wondered if they should heed it… 

**L E A V E**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last word is supposed to be in a different font and the colour brown (to represent how it was carved into the door), but I spent a lot of time trying to get the last word of the last chapter to cooperate and I can't be bothered trying now.
> 
> HTML has defeated me once again!


	3. The Whiteboard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> I haven't posted anything on here for a couple of months, so I figure I should explain some things. Nothing drastic happened.
> 
> What happened was, despite wanting to write more of this story in particular during October, I had an idea for an original story. With my friends doing a writing group over Discord, I decided to write it since I was particularly excited about it. Or, at least, write the main parts of it in a one-shot - except it is now several chapters long. I want to go back and add in additional points before I publish it, though I am thinking of making it another website thing (that I'm in the process of figuring out how to work) but it just meant that I had nothing to post before NanoWrimo took over my life. And also additional hours at work because everyone went a bit mental before we got put into Tier 4 (I live in an area of Scotland that was apparently getting quite high in infection rates of Covid, so).
> 
> Anyways, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took so long. =/
> 
> (The bits on the whiteboard should be blue, but I have long since given up trying to use HTML to code it right, so...)

There didn’t seem to be any further activity during the night, but Andrew still didn’t get any sleep. Just the idea of someone having been in his room pissed him off. The lock was supposed to keep everyone out. Instead, there was someone who could appear and vanish at will and could, presumably, walk through walls. When the birds started singing, Andrew rose from the bed, took one look at the figurine and threw it at the closet. It fell to the floor but appeared unharmed. Nothing else happened. Clenching his jaw, Andrew went to the bathroom to get ready. 

He needed to speak to Wymack. There was no way that he wanted him and his own to stay in this house any longer than necessary. But, he realised as he angrily turned on the tap, he couldn’t justify why he wanted to move. At this stage, trying to find a new house for as cheap a price would be impossible. The only option was to get an exorcist, though Andrew knew it wouldn’t be an expense that the team could justify to the college. Besides, who knew which exorcist was real and who was fake.

It was beginning to look like he was going to have to take Renee’s option from a previous conversation about dealing with ghosts: helping the ghost move on. 

That would still require going to Wymack, so he headed back to his room to get his things. When he entered, he immediately saw the difference. He glowered at the figurine sitting innocently on his pillow. Rolling his eyes so that the ghost, wherever he was, could see it and hopefully sense how unimpressed he was, he moved around his room to collect all the things he needed. As he turned to go out the door, though, he could feel something pressing on him, like the knowledge that someone nearby was amused. Andrew ignored it and left.

Downstairs, he found Matt in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hands. “Oh, hey, Andrew,” he mumbled, sleepily. Andrew grunted in response, but it didn’t stop Matt from continuing. “How’re you settling into your room?” He stifled a yawn and smiled at Andrew, though his eyes were mostly closed.

Seeing no reason to avoid answering, Andrew said, “It’s plagued with a ghost.”

Matt blinked a few times, so slow to process Andrew’s words that he managed to get a cup of coffee and a bowl before Matt replied. “Wait, what?”

Since Andrew didn’t like repeating himself, he only stared back at Matt. This time, he was able to pour some Lucky Charms and milk into the bowl. It was only as Andrew loudly crunched into a spoonful of the marshmallows that Matt said anything else.

Rubbing at his eyes, Matt shook his head. “Did you say ghost?”

Andrew waved his spoon at Matt in a lazy affirmative.

For a moment, Matt frowned into his cup. Then he drained it and set it on the counter beside the sink. Andrew looked at it until Matt stepped in front of it and leaned against the sink. “Was it a woman?” he asked. When Andrew looked back at him, he noticed how worried Matt seemed. He also noticed a mark on Matt’s wrist, peeking out from his long-sleeved, red top.

“What’s that?” he asked instead of answering. If Matt was using again… 

“Huh?” Matt glanced down. “Oh…” He pushed up his sleeve to show Andrew a new bruise, which took care of one of Andrew’s problems instantly and replaced it with questions. His eyes narrowed as he took in the shape of the bruise. “I woke up like this,” Matt was saying even as Andrew pushed to his feet and stepped towards him.

“Who did that?” Andrew demanded.

“I think I just slept on it wrong,” Matt told him, despite the obvious.

What looked like a hand was imprinted on Matt from what looked like a too-tight grip. It looked exactly like some of the marks that Aaron had had when  _ that woman _ was still alive. Still, it was unlikely that Dan would do something like that, and Matt had asked about the ghost… “Why do you think the ghost is a woman?” he demanded.

Matt blinked at Andrew, clearly perplexed. “Huh? Ah. It’s just… I had a strange dream about a woman screaming at me.” He shuddered. “It wasn’t great.”

Andrew stared at Matt’s wrist for a moment more. If what Matt said was true, then that meant either the boy or the woman was just a memory. Though, with the way the figurine kept moving around, he would expect the boy to be the ghost. Yet, those bruises…

His mind flashed to a scenario that was probably the reason they were dead. A man who thought he owned them and lashed out when he was reminded that they were people who could fight back. Andrew’s heart didn’t ‘go out to them’ as other people might; he simply wasn’t surprised. Still, that would mean that there were  _ two _ ghosts to worry about, and Andrew decided he wasn’t waiting.

He spun away from Matt and grabbed his bowl. As he dropped it into the sink, Matt stepped towards him. Andrew tensed and shot a glare at Matt to make him back off. Of course, since his team consisted mostly of idiots, Matt didn’t do anything of the sort. He didn’t come any closer, either, so Andrew supposed his glare had worked. It hadn’t put Matt off speaking, though. 

“What? Do you think it’s related?”

Andrew ignored him and spun on his heel. He ignored Matt’s calls as he strode from the room and barely glanced at Dan’s frown as she stopped beside the door. It was time to talk to Wymack and he didn’t have time to waste with his teammates.

* * *

It was still quite early by the time Andrew reached Wymack’s apartment. He didn’t bother knocking; with deft fingers, he picked the lock and let himself in. Andrew had already decided that he was going to wait in the living room for Wymack to get up, so he headed straight there and only paused when he heard a noise from the kitchen. Gritting his teeth against the vague feeling of disappointment, Andrew turned to look into the room, stepping forward so that he was standing squarely in the doorway.

Wymack was leaning against his kitchen counter, a mug in one hand. He didn’t look at all surprised that Andrew was there or that he had gotten past his locked door. Andrew supposed he had gotten used to it by now. His deep green tank top showed off his tribal tattoos which bulged with the way his arms were crossed over his chest.

“Yes?” said Wymack. When Andrew just stared at him, he added, “Is there a reason you’re gracing me with your presence?”

“What’s wrong with the house?” Andrew demanded, getting to the heart of the problem.

After blinking a couple of times, Wymack raised an eyebrow. “Nothing that I know about. The attic has never been cleared, so if you want to, you lot can explore there. Just be careful. I don’t want any of my players out before the season’s even started.”

“No house that big would be sold for such a small amount of money,” Andrew pointed out, making his way into the kitchen properly.

“Well, that’s what the estate agent took,” Wymack said, watching Andrew as he went straight to the cupboard with the mugs. He pulled one out and headed to the coffee machine, glancing at Wymack until he slid along the counter so that Andrew could get in. When Andrew concentrated on getting himself something to drink instead of saying anything, Wymack sighed into his mug, took a drink and then set it down. “Why do you think there’s something wrong with the house?”

Andrew waited until he’d stirred in the appropriate amount of cream and sugar - the coffee now a pale brown - before he spoke. “Various strange things.” He looked at Wymack significantly and took a sip. Wymack didn’t look convinced, so Andrew added, “Doors slamming shut that shouldn’t, strange messages… Knives flying at me and mine.”

Wymack’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “‘Knives flying’?” he echoed. “No-one’s in hospital are they?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Coach,” said Andrew, faux lightly. “Your team’s still intact, though Seth is testing our patience, of course.”

For a moment, Wymack closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he looked straight at Andrew. “And what do you think is happening in the house? A squatter that’s hiding there? Home invaders?”

Briefly, Andrew considered telling Wymack that there seemed to be ghosts. But he had long since learnt that people didn’t believe things they considered to be impossible. The ghosts would be brushed off as tricks of the mind or the light, blamed on a faulty house. Andrew wasn’t prepared to deal with anyone ignoring this issue, so, instead of telling Wymack the truth, he said, “Just find out who lived in the house before us.”

“Nobody’s lived in that house for years,” Wymack told Andrew, frowning. “That’s why we got it so cheap. But I can ask the estate agent.”

“And I’ll shut down the goal completely in the first game we play,” Andrew added. 

“Which you should be doing, anyway,” Wymack said, gruffly.

Andrew ignored him and they both drank the rest of their coffees in silence.

* * *

Since there was nothing else to do until Wymack got in touch with the estate agent, Andrew drove to a grocery store to pick up some ice cream and chocolate. Then he returned to the house, planning to curl up on a couch and eat his well-deserved treat. Unfortunately, as soon as he got out of the car, he knew that something was wrong. Not only was there an oppressive atmosphere, but he could hear the argument from where he stood. He paused and glared at the house, not happy with the fact that he was going to have to expend more of the energy he didn’t have. Still, he grabbed his bag of ice cream and candy and headed inside.

The argument seemed to be coming from upstairs, so Andrew made his way to the freezer and put away the ice cream, taking out some sort of healthy concoction of Kevin’s so that his tubs could fit. Only once he had hid his chocolate behind the boxes of tea (the only part of the cupboard he could reach without climbing onto the counter or dragging a chair over) did he venture up the stairs. All of the Foxes were clustered on the opposite side of the house from Andrew’s bedroom and he stopped when he turned the corner. They seemed to be outside of Seth’s room, judging by how incensed he was, shouting at Kevin who, as usual, was making things difficult by being dismissive of whatever vitriol Seth was spewing. As far as Andrew could make out, someone had made a mess of Seth’s room with his own clothes. Why he thought anyone would do that was beyond Andrew, but he thought he had an idea of who it could be.

Of course, his musings were cut off by Seth grabbing the front of Kevin’s shirt. The idiot shoved Kevin into the wall, hard enough that Kevin’s head bumped off the wooden panelling. Andrew reacted instantly. He shoved Matt aside, leapt over people’s legs, grabbed Seth and threw him through the door of his own room. Andrew gave Kevin a hard look, assessing the extent of his injuries. Kevin winced but shook his head, which Andrew took to mean that he had little more than a bruise. Still, Seth should know better, so Andrew turned to him, his eyes narrowed, ignoring Seth’s cursing.

He only paused when he saw the state of Seth’s room beyond the man. His clothes had been strewn across the floor, but Andrew could see that, before Seth had woken, they had been carefully arranged somehow. There had probably been a message that Seth, stupid as he was, hadn’t seen. No doubt, it would have spelled out something along the lines of wanting them to leave. Andrew decided that was not his problem, however, and stepped towards Seth who was in the process of using his bed to stand upright.

That was when the stunned Foxes reacted. “Andrew!” Dan exclaimed. “Stop! We have enough problems without you hurting Seth.”

Andrew dismissed her objections with a flick of his fingers. “He knows what happens when he touches what’s mine,” he said, voice low. Seth’s eyes narrowed as he spoke, his hands curled into fists. The look on his face told Andrew that Seth was going to say something stupid, something that would make him even more of a threat to Kevin, forcing Andrew to act. So, before he could say anything, Andrew took another step towards him, still on one side of the threshold.

Then, without any outside assistance, the door slammed shut.

Everyone went still. Andrew stared at the wooden barrier blankly. The ghosts had interfered once again. A few more seconds passed while Andrew considered the pros and cons of kicking down the door and teaching Seth a lesson. Then he heard Seth’s raised voice sounding angry and scared, so he stepped back and turned to Kevin, eyeing him. When Kevin shook his head, Andrew considered the incident over and backed out of the way of the others as they rushed forward to try to figure out what had happened.

Andrew ignored their exclamations and questions and Renee’s curious look. Aaron watched him pass, looking vaguely annoyed, while Nicky hovered, worried and metaphorically biting his lip. He ignored them, too, and made his way downstairs to get some ice cream. A chill ran down his spine and he ignored that too, even though he was sure that this haunting wasn’t over…

* * *

Tension stayed between the occupants of the house for the rest of the day. It was something that everyone was used to, since it had been like that in the previous house. However, it seemed heavier in this new house, making it last longer. Eventually, Dan broke and ordered everyone into the living room for another movie night. Since Andrew had already been sitting in there, eating ice cream, he watched them all file in and set up for a movie marathon, unwilling to move out of their way. 

Seth somehow managed to snag a seat next to Allison, despite how disgruntled the dealer looked at his presence. He leaned forward as the group discussed what movie to watch. “It should be a horror,” he said, glancing quite obviously at Allison. She scoffed at the suggestion and lifted her hand to inspect her nails. Andrew sucked the ice cream off his spoon and wondered if the ghost would protest their choice once again.

A sudden presence at Andrew’s side made him glance over. Renee had lowered her saintly self into the beanbag beside Andrew and she smiled at him when she saw him looking. He turned his head, staring at the menu screen of the games console instead. The others bickered about comedies vs. horrors vs. horror comedies. Andrew tuned them out and waited for Renee to say something.

“Have you had a good day?” she asked.

Andrew glanced at her and pointedly slipped his spoon into his mouth.

Renee nodded. “It has been rather exhausting today,” she said, as if she was agreeing with him. “Do you know why that is?”

Cutting Renee a look, Andrew pulled the spoon out of his mouth with a pop. “I think  _ you _ do.”

“Hm, yes. I have felt a presence wandering around on our side of the house, though it’s not… present.”

Andrew snorted. “Of course,” he drawled. “Sounds like a problem for you and yours.”

“But it’s not the only problem, is it?” Renee asked, looking straight into Andrew’s eyes - and probably into his soul.

Since Renee obviously knew the answer to her own question, Andrew only raised an eyebrow. Then he turned to the TV, watching them queue up a movie called Happy Deathday, apparently a happy middle ground between horror and comedy. However, he could feel Renee’s stare on his face, and Andrew held out for a few more moments. Then, annoyed, he said, “What?”

“You haven’t found an exorcist yet?” Renee asked, innocently.

Again, Andrew shot her look. This time, though, he also said, “You haven’t laid it to rest yet?”

Renee smiled sweetly, a concession that Andrew was right. Neither of them had done anything. Then again, the ghosts hadn’t done anything too violent for them to be truly worried. Andrew was more annoyed that his privacy was going to be invaded every moment of the day. He returned to his ice cream, and stared blankly at the screen, ignoring the easing tension that was allowing the others to form an unstable sort of camaraderie that would disappear the moment Kevin started insisting on watching old Exy footage.

In fact, they managed to get through a good third of the movie before things went south - and not because of any of the Foxes.

Instead, the lights flickered at a particularly creepy moment. Andrew was in the middle of finishing off the last of his ice cream and didn’t look up, even though Allison had squealed and grabbed Seth by the arm, which was clearly his intention by insisting on a horror movie. Someone else also screamed a little; Andrew was sure it was Nicky, but a survey of the room told him that Matt was also suspect, what with the blush on his cheeks. Then, before they had properly recovered, the lights flickered again and the TV switched off. 

This time, Dan frowned and looked around. “Okay,” she said into the heavy silence. “Who sat on the remote?”

“It’s on the coffee table,” Matt pointed out. 

The silence reigned for a few more seconds as the others stared at the remote. Andrew sucked on his spoon, gazing around the room. He was sure the ghost was in the room and he wanted to see it before it started anything. Just as Dan leaned forward to grab the remote, there was a loud squeaking noise coming from by the door. Everyone froze and Andrew looked over to see what could possibly be making such a noise. That was when he noticed that the whiteboard had been wiped clean of its scheduled chores.

A blue pen was floating in front of it, having written a single letter.

**G**

“Oh, my God,” whispered Nicky, frozen in his armchair. “Am I hallucinating?”

No-one answered, too busy watching the pen as it moved. Andrew considered the ‘g’ and, combining that with the other messages, decided it was likely that the ghost was writing out a similar message.  _ Get out. _ It was very predictable, so he returned his attention to his ice cream, scraping out the last little bit of it.

“Really?” hissed Aaron from his own beanbag across the room. Andrew merely sucked on his spoon in answer.

Eventually, the pen stopped squeaking. Andrew glanced up, watching as the invisible presence capped the pen. It placed the pen down where it had been before. Then, before anyone could react to both the message and the now obvious ghost, the boy that Andrew had seen before flickered into existence. At first, when he blinked in and out, he looked much the same as Andrew had seen him the night before, wearing those same clothes. Then, suddenly, he stopped flickering and he looked entirely more nightmarish.

There was blood seeping from his neck. Fresh burn marks covered one cheek while his other had thin lines of red, as if someone had cut him with the tip of a knife. His hands were bloodied with more cuts and burn marks. Blood soaked through his grey, faded clothes; they were blacker than they had been a moment before, and seemed to focus on his legs and stomach. The ghost raised his hands, flinched, and silently spoke. It went by too fast for Andrew to parse it. Then, the tortured boy threw back his head, opened his mouth wide, and screamed.

It was a high-pitched, horrible, terrified sound which rang in their ears. Everyone but Andrew and Renee clapped their hands over their ears. Glasses shattered and one of the light bulbs broke, raining glass down behind the group. Then, just as soon as it had started, it stopped and the boy was gone. There was a short silence filled only with the sound of panicked, heavy breathing. Only a minute after the ghost had disappeared, the TV made a staticky noise and came back on as the protagonist was screaming and running from her killer. Nicky shrieked and Dan grabbed the remote to press pause.

“Was that… real?” asked Allison. With all her money, she probably assumed there was a way to make a trick look so realistic. 

“You don’t think that was real?!” Seth snapped. He pushed up from the couch. “Nope. No way. I’m not staying here anymore. I’m not waiting around to be murdered in my sleep.”

Matt whimpered. “No, don’t say that. The woman…”

“There’s nowhere for us to go,” Dan told them. She looked pale, but determined. Glancing down at the remote, she made a decision and stopped the movie entirely. “We can figure out what to do in the morning. But, for now, we’ll stay down here. We’ll be safe together-”

“Did you not  _ see _ the ghost?!” Kevin demanded, entirely pale.

“Well, look,” said Dan, trying to sound reasonable despite how much she was trembling. Matt reached out to squeeze her arm, nodding encouragingly. “Clearly, something happened in this house. But we can exorcise it. Right?”

“What do you think, Renee?” asked Nicky, looking quite desperate.

Renee reached up to the cross on her neck before she smiled, as if she was reminding herself who she was. Andrew snorted at that, but said nothing as she clasped her hands in her lap. “We have been here for a couple of nights now. I think we will be safe tonight, especially if we stay here.”

Inwardly, Andrew sighed. He wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight if everyone was going to stay within sight of each other. However, he refused to be squashed into one of the bedrooms with his family and Kevin. If he was going to have to keep an eye on them during the night, Andrew decided he was going to get some chocolate and stood. Everyone looked at him, but he ignored them as he stepped around the couches and chairs.

“What are you doing?” Seth demanded. 

As usual, Andrew ignored him and made his way to the kitchen. There, he pulled out some cocoa and made himself some. He also pulled out one of the bars of chocolate he had bought earlier. Once he had everything he needed, he made his way back to the living room. The others were still noisily debating what they should be doing about the ghost, so he presumed that everyone was still alive, as he knew they would be. Their resident ghost seemed to delight in small scares in an attempt to make them leave.

Before he set foot in the living room, Andrew heard a rather loud creaking sound. He paused and looked in the direction it had seemingly come from. Nothing seemed to be amiss, but Andrew made his way along the hall, alert for more messages for them to leave. Instead, he came upon a door that was slightly ajar. 

Andrew was sure it was the door to the basement.

He stared at it for a moment. As far as he was aware, no-one had had the time to go into the basement yet, though, before the ghost’s rather obvious appearance, there had been talk of making it into a gym. Now, Andrew suspected that the others would want to deal with the ghost first. But that meant that none of the current occupants of the house had likely gone into the basement. He remembered, vividly, the other horror movie they had watched, when the ghost had turned it off during the basement scene. A hint, perhaps.

He reached out to the door, ready to pull back if anything strange happened. Nothing did, and he grasped the handle. His mug of cocoa and chocolate bar was in his other hand. Andrew stared at the strip of darkness between the door and the frame.

Then he firmly shut the door. 

When nothing else happened, he let go of the handle and turned to go. Several steps along the hall, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure it had stayed closed. It had, thankfully, so he dismissed it from his thoughts. Instead, he made his way back into the living room, glancing at the message on the whiteboard, contemplatively. Did the ghost want to harm them, or was he warning them? The message certainly suggested that he wanted them to,

**G E T O U T**


	4. The Ouija Board

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I'm assuming you can buy ouija boards relatively easily, but who knows if that's accurate. Or if libraries have dumpsters next to them in America.
> 
> (I tried to get a sort of ouija board font but failed in that there wasn't a similar enough option, and then html just hates me.)

The entire team ended up arguing for a good hour after Andrew returned to the living room. But, as the night wore on, there were no more strange occurrences. Eventually, the others stopped talking and drifted off. Andrew stayed curled up under one of the blankets that had been produced (by a nervous trip upstairs by a small group of the others). He had had to stop Nicky going with them, and kept him, Aaron and Kevin in the living room with him. Renee had gone with them, clutching at her cross, presumably to use as her weapon against the supernatural beings they were living with. 

By the time morning dawned, Andrew was exhausted once again. There had been no sleep for him, with everyone in the room, making noises in their sleep. Thankfully, morning brought relief as everyone awoke and bumbled around the house. Clearly, the rest of the idiots on the team had forgotten about some of the daytime events already. In any case, they had agreed on a plan of action: call Wymack for help, then deal with it on their own, if they needed to.

As soon as everyone was awake enough, Dan held her phone in the air. “We’ll call Coach now,” she said. There was a murmuring of agreement and she tapped away at the screen before she set it onto the table, the ringing sound loud in the silent room.

There was a click as the phone was answered. “Something wrong?” Wymack asked, voice rough from sleep - or lack of it.

“Uh, yeah,” said Dan. “Is- Well, we-” She faltered and looked around them all.

Annoyed at them all, Andrew stood and stepped over to the coffee table. “Have you looked into the house yet?” he asked Wymack, startling everyone into staring at him.

“More faults in the house?” Wymack asked, sighing. “I couldn’t catch the estate agent yesterday. I’ll try again today. Though I’m sure you could just use the library for whatever you’re looking for,” Wymack added, pointedly.

“Find the estate agent,” was all Andrew said to that.

“Wait!” exclaimed Dan. “I- Coach, we… have a problem.”

“I know,” Wymack said. “Andrew told me. Look, let me try to find out what’s going on and then I’ll try finding you somewhere else to stay while we get this sorted out.”

Dan looked bewildered and a little worried, but she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll… figure something out.”

“Hang in there,” Wymack told them, and hung up.

“What the fuck?!” Seth shouted. He was staring at Andrew when he turned to glare at the idiot for his volume. “You already told him?”

“Does he know it’s a ghost?” Renee asked Andrew, much more calmly.

Andrew raised an eyebrow at her. _Do you really think they would believe me?_

Renee nodded. “Okay. Maybe, while Coach is busy, we could try to figure out what’s going on ourselves. It might even help the ghosts.”

“Why did you say ‘ghosts’?” asked Nicky, practically gibbering in fear. “Why is it plural?!”

“In a place like this,” Renee said, “there are likely lots of bad memories keeping spirits from moving on.”

“How are we going to find out what’s going on?” Aaron asked, particularly grumpy. Andrew had noticed that his brother hadn’t got much sleep the night before; Aaron was likely struggling to accept what he’d seen with his scientific mind.

“The library,” Kevin piped up. “Books and newspaper records. We can find out the last time this house was used and who died here. Who that boy was.”

“I don’t do libraries,” said Andrew, firmly. He began to make his way out of the room, intent on a shower.

“Andrew!” Nicky exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. “Don’t you want to help the ghost at all?”

Pausing in the doorway, Andrew looked at him, unimpressed. “No,” he said, firmly. 

Kevin sighed and rolled his eyes. “We’ll borrow your car, then,” he said.

“No,” Andrew said, resigned to the fact that he was about to make a trip to a library with the others in tow. Before anyone could protest anymore, he left the room and trudged upstairs, ignoring the amused air that brushed a chill against his back.

* * *

After all the annoying chaos of everyone getting ready, Andrew ended up driving Kevin, Nicky and Aaron to the closest library with the others all squashed into Matt’s truck. He ignored Nicky’s chattering, obviously panicked about the ghost; Andrew had the feeling that Nicky would be following Renee on her next trip to church. When they finally pulled up in the parking lot, Andrew waited until they had all gotten out of the car before he did the same. Then, instead of following them, he leaned against the car and pulled out his cigarettes and lighter. He shook out a stick and lit it.

Kevin was the one to notice his absence and he stopped, turned around and headed back to Andrew’s side. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

Andrew placed the stick in his mouth, took a drag and blew the smoke at Kevin’s face. 

“This is important,” Kevin insisted.

“Then go,” said Andrew, taking the cigarette from his mouth with two fingers and using them to dismiss Kevin.

Scowling, Kevin gestured at Andrew. “You shouldn’t be doing that. We’ll need to do more cardio-”

“If you want to walk back to the house on your own, keep going.”

Since Kevin was still terrified of the thought of Riko somehow reaching him while he was alone, he backed off. Andrew watched him huff, scowl some more, and turn on his heel to enter the library. Then he leaned against the car and considered how best to spend his time. For a while, he only smoked, wondering what they were going to do if this ridiculous endeavour yielded no results. Eventually, he noticed a man around his own age hovering at the edge of the parking lot, watching him. Andrew looked him up and down and noticed how built he was, his muscles straining his shirt - another stupid jock. But said stupid jock had an attractive enough face and his staring was more appreciative than aggressive. To experiment, Andrew made eye contact with him and slowly lifted his cigarette to his lips. The man gulped and Andrew decided that he might as well have some fun. He dropped the stick and ground it out under his boot, before he stalked towards him. As he drew closer, he noticed that the man was sweaty; he must have been on a run. He was also, infuriatingly, taller than Andrew but he supposed that wouldn’t matter when Andrew was on his knees.

So, for a few minutes, Andrew occupied himself with the man at the side of the library, where only dumpsters and a fence took up the space. Hidden from the world, Andrew ordered the man to keep his hands to himself and used his mouth to get the guy off. Once he was finished, he had to glare and snap at the man for him to disappear; the man wanted to give him a number, but Andrew didn’t care enough to want it. After he had gone, Andrew took care of himself then returned to the side of the car to smoke some more. 

At some point, he was bored enough to slide into the backseat, lock the car, and let himself drift off. Passing people, cars and reversing sounds woke him periodically, but he at least got a little more sleep than he would have had in the house. He was jerked into alertness when someone knocked loudly on the window. Disgruntled, Andrew sat up, unlocked the door and slid out of the car, glaring at Kevin who was standing there clutching at a pile of books.

“We’re getting food,” Kevin announced. Beyond him, the rest of the team were making their way over. Apart from Kevin, Renee was the only one with any books.

“I’m not coming back here,” said Andrew with a pointed glance at the books in Kevin’s arms.

“I can take them back later,” Kevin said, dismissively.

Andrew made his way to the driver’s seat and found himself wondering if they’d found anything. Judging from the books, however, it was more likely that they hadn’t yet. However, the fact that he felt any tiny amount of wanting to know - not that he did, of course - irritated him. The ghost was causing him a lot of problems already and he hated it.

He jabbed the key into the ignition and drove off, heading towards a diner he knew did good, massive ice cream sundaes. If he was going to be forced to eat, he’d eat something good. Unfortunately, Nicky was in the car, seated behind Kevin, and he insisted on recounting what they’d just experienced in the library.

“I still don’t understand why something like… that ghost wouldn’t be front page news,” he complained.

“Cover up,” Aaron offered in explanation. 

“Yeah, but, still. And all those history books were _so_ boring.”

“They were informative,” Kevin corrected him.

“Yeah, yeah, crazy history buff. Anyway,” Nicky added, “did you see that librarian?”

“God, shut up,” growled Aaron, obviously at the end of the tolerating-Nicky’s-idiocy rope.

“But Andrew didn’t see him!” Nicky protested. “He was _hot_ , in that sort of geeky way. Those shoulders, oof! And-”

Andrew reached over and slapped the button to turn on the radio, already tuned to his preferred station. It was one, thankfully, that played loud music, which Andrew turned up to drown Nicky out. Flicking his gaze to the rearview mirror, he caught Nicky’s pout as he deflated. Aaron, meanwhile, looked equal parts relieved and pained. Returning his attention to the road, Andrew ignored Kevin’s glare and focussed on driving.

When they reached the diner, Andrew almost led them to their usual table. But Matt had been following them, so Andrew headed to one of the booths that had a table close by. He shoved it across the floor without asking before he slid into the booth with his back against the window. Kevin frowned at him until Andrew let one of his legs drop off the bench while he bent his other leg, keeping everyone at a distance. The others filed in, chattering about inconsequential things. 

Only once they had ordered did Kevin cut through the gossiping and talking by dropping his stack of books on the table. “We need to find more about it,” he announced.

“Oh, sure,” said Dan, pulling one of Renee’s books towards her. “What was it again?”

“The Butcher of Baltimore,” Kevin said.

“‘The Butcher’?” Andrew echoed. That didn’t sound like a one off attack that ended in inevitable ‘tragedy’. 

“Yeah,” said Nicky, leaning across the table to look at Andrew with wide eyes. “We found, like, one thing in a local paper about the ‘Butcher of Baltimore’. He was, like, some sort of gangster. The Godfather, or whatever. Just, not Italian?” He looked at Kevin for confirmation.

“It only said that the Butcher and his associates had been arrested and then, later, that he’d been killed in his own house,” Kevin told Andrew.

“And that’s where we live now,” Andrew said, raising an eyebrow. 

“I think so,” said Kevin. “That’s why we have all these local history books. Some of these have chapters devoted to the Butcher, so we grabbed these.”

There were five books between them and Andrew watched as Kevin hogged one, Dan and Matt shared another, Allison flicked idly through another, Nicky barely glanced at the words in his, and Renee read through the last one. Aaron stared into space, deliberately not looking at Andrew who watched the room, waiting for his sundae. Just as the waitress started to make her way back to them, her arms laden with plates and glasses, Kevin gasped. 

“What?” said Nicky, immediately. He stared at Kevin with wide eyes. “Did you find it? Did you find our ghost?”

Kevin waited until they all had their food to respond. “The Butcher of Baltimore wasn’t just the head of a criminal organisation,” he said, leaning over the table so that everyone could hear his hushed words. “He was also a serial killer.”

“Oh, no,” groaned Nicky.

“It says here,” said Kevin, jabbing his finger at the book he was clutching to his chest, “that he was famous for using a cleaver on his victims. Of which… there were probably more than anyone ever found, because he - Nathan Wesninski - had a right hand woman called Lola who apparently disposed of the bodies. And she was good at her job.”

“Shit,” said Matt, grimacing. “So we might not even be able to figure out who’s still in the house.”

“It’s worse than that,” said Renee, her serene expression gone in the face of the usual horrors of the world. “He used the basement as his murder room.”

“Okay, nope,” said Nicky. “Not going down there, ever.”

“But that’s not the worst of it,” Kevin insisted, leaning forward. His elbow nearly knocked Andrew’s ice cream out of his hand and he retaliated with a jab of his foot into Kevin’s hip. Kevin ignored him, but his elbow shifted away from Andrew so Andrew subsided back against the window. 

“There’s worse?” asked Nicky, grimacing.

“He had a wife and son.”

“Oh, fuck, no,” Seth grumbled. 

“The ghost,” said Dan, her eyes wide in her realisation.

“Maybe,” Kevin conceded. “This book says that the police tried to get the Butcher every so often, but they could never pin anything on him. They went to the house, though, and Mary - the wife - and his son, Nathaniel, both looked picture perfect and happy. And then they disappeared.”

“No,” said Nicky, looking teary-eyed.

“They must have been terrified,” said Dan, her jaw clenched.

“Eventually, they got him on a firearms charge and he was in a high security prison for a few months,” Kevin continued, as if he was the new expert in the story of the Butcher. “When they asked him where his wife and son were, he said that he didn’t know, that he’d put in a missing person’s report. Then he got out of prison and spent a few months doing what he had before.”

“What, they couldn’t arrest him after that?” Matt asked, incredulous. Andrew snorted at his naivety and licked some ice cream off his spoon when the others glanced at him.

“No. Not enough evidence, remember? But… Well.” Kevin looked down at his book, frowning at it.

“What?”

“Well, the Butcher was shot in his own basement, along with Lola and someone called Patrick DiMaccio. Nobody knows who did it, and it’s an unsolved mystery, along with where Mary and Nathaniel are. And who else the Butcher killed.”

“So…” said Allison, her brow furrowed in thought. “What you’re saying is that, not only was a serial killer and his underlings gunned down in our basement, there were who knows how many people killed down there to begin with. And his wife and son were missing for years before his death, too.”

There was a beat of silence, filled only with the background chattering of the other patrons and the clinking of cutlery. “Oh, fuck,” said Kevin, a little breathlessly. “There’s so many people this could be. We could be dealing with any number of them.” 

Andrew stared at the book in Kevin’s hands, apathetic. Of course there was more than one ghost. He had seen a boy and Matt had seen a woman, so it stood to reason that the house had seen its share of horrors. None of them had likely expected so many deaths in such a short amount of time. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was, how were they supposed to know how to help the ghosts, if they weren’t sure who they were helping? Though, in Andrew’s opinion, they should just move out and find somewhere a little less haunted.

“We need to find out who we’re dealing with here,” Dan said, authoritatively.

Matt hummed in agreement, gazing down at his plate in consternation. It seemed that he couldn’t bring himself to eat after hearing about the horror story they were now in. “Any ideas?”

“It would help if we could talk to the ghosts,” Kevin said, frowning in thought.

“What? No! We don’t want to talk to them!” Nicky exclaimed, still pale from the story Kevin had told them.

“We do,” Kevin firmly retorted. “It will be the quickest way. We might need to find a medium.”

Seth snorted. “They’ll stick us with a huge bill and lie about it. I’m not paying to get rid of things that should’ve moved on years ago.”

“That’s so kind of you,” Aaron drawled, scowling at Seth.

“You-”

“So!” Allison exclaimed, clapping her hands together and glowering at her sometime boyfriend. Seth scoffed and slumped back against the couch, arms crossed and clearly in a huff. Allison ignored his attitude and continued. “What we want is a way to talk to ghosts that’s free - or, at least, cheap.”

“There’s no way we can do that,” Kevin said, his brow furrowed even more. It was an expression that Andrew usually associated with someone displaying their bad footwork to Kevin on an Exy court. 

“Oh, no,” said Allison, raising a finger. “There is one way we can do that. But you’re not going to like it.”

“What way?”

Allison paused, obviously for dramatic effect. She looked around at them all, and everyone stared at her, waiting. Kevin and Aaron both rolled their eyes but, eventually, she took a deep breath and they hung on her every word. “A ouija board.”

There was an immediate uproar. Nicky and Matt were protesting. Kevin scoffed at the thought of using something so childish. Dan said something about inviting in horror movie tropes. It was a mess and Andrew gave up on it all. He clambered to his feet on the bench, climbed over the back of the booth, jumped down to the floor and strode from the diner to have another smoke. They could argue it out among themselves and do what they wanted, but he wasn’t going to be part of their stupidity.

* * *

Of course, he didn’t get out of it that easily. 

Back at the house, he and his own found nothing out of the ordinary, so they settled in the living area. Aaron put on some inane comedy show, and the other two settled warily on the couch. Nicky kept looking around, his nerves clear to all. Andrew didn’t put it past the ghost to notice. For some reason, the others took quite some time to return and, when they did, Allison lifted a box into the air.

“Come on, losers,” she declared, showing off the very new ouija board she must have just bought.

“You actually bought one?” asked Nicky, aghast.

“Of course.”

“That’s not going to work,” Kevin protested.

“Then it won’t matter if everyone comes to the dining room and tries it with us,” Allison retorted. “Even you two monsters,” she added, glaring at Aaron and Andrew. Then she swept from the room.

Andrew intended to ignore her orders, but Kevin and his damnable curiosity stood from his place with a sigh. “I suppose,” he mumbled, “we could try it.”

Aaron grumbled, but also stood. “This is ridiculous. It was probably nothing. Seth’s a dick - this is just his revenge prank or something.”

“You think he made the ghost?!” Nicky exclaimed, incredulously. “I practically shit myself. Seth’s not _that_ good.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Kevin declared, all regal and self-important.

The three of them filed out of the room and, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Andrew followed them. In the dining room, he dropped down into the furthest chair from the rest of them and put his feet on the one chair they didn’t need. That prevented anyone from coming close to him. He folded his arms and watched as Allison ripped off the plastic covering with her teeth. Once she had shaken out the board and planchette, Allison shoved it into the middle of the group.

“Let’s get this started,” Allison announced. “Everyone get a finger on the planchette.”

Andrew didn’t bother moving and watched as the others stretched and grimaced and ended up huddled around the board. Dan was the one to notice Andrew’s unmoving form and frowned down the table at him. “Come on, Andrew. We all need to touch the planchette.”

When Andrew only stared back at them, Seth scoffed. “Forget him. Let the ghost take out its anger on him, if he’s going to be a dick about this.”

He didn’t respond, so the others turned back to the board. They fell silent for a moment, glancing around until Renee took charge. “Hello,” she said, calmly. “Is there a spirit present here?” There was no response so Renee continued. “We wish to help you, spirit, so please declare yourself.”

For several minutes, Renee continued to repeat the same messages only in slightly different ways. Nothing happened. Eventually, Seth got fed up and threw his hands in the air. “Fuck this. The ghost is being a dick or it wasn’t there to begin with. I wouldn’t be surprised if the monsters were responsible for everything.”

That seemed to incense Aaron who drew his hands away. “Really? That’s so childish. Like you.”

“Yeah,” Nicky agreed, also pulling away from the planchette. “How do we know it’s not you?”

“Guys,” said Dan in a placating tone. “Come on. This isn’t helping.”

By that point, everyone had let go of the planchette. Andrew kept his gaze on it, unwilling to let himself be drawn into the argument. It still didn’t move, sitting innocently in the middle of the board. He was still staring at it when Allison began to make a fuss.

“This is ridiculous. If this ghost wants to talk to us, why won’t it say anything when we actually want it to.” Allison glared around the room. “Hey, ghost, are you there? Speak up!”

The planchette immediately shifted across the board. Eyebrows raised in surprise, Andrew swung his feet off the chair and leaned forward to see what it said. Allison noticed his movement before she gasped at the sight of the planchette’s message.

**YES**

“Holy shit!” Allison exclaimed, cutting through the argument still ongoing. Everyone turned to look at her, then at the board.

“Did you move it?” asked Nicky, fearfully. “’Cause, like, that is _not_ funny.”

“No, I didn’t!” Allison protested. 

“Who moved it, then?” asked Matt, puzzled.

Andrew sighed. “Tell them who moved it,” he said to the ghost, keeping his eyes on the planchette. He spotted the others looking at him in surprise, but he ignored them.

Again, the planchette moved. **NO**

“Holy shit,” Nicky whimpered.

“It’s not a trick, right?” said Aaron, sounding desperate as he grasped at logic and science.

“No,” said Allison. “This is real. Right, ghostie?”

Again, the ghost responded. This time, however, it began to spell out a word with sharp, fast movements. Everyone watched with bated breath, waiting for the finished product.

**U**

**N**

**F**

**O**

**R**

**T**

**U**

**N**

**A**

**T**

**E**

**L**

**Y**

“The ghost has an attitude problem,” Kevin grumbled, as soon as the planchette stopped moving.

“We want to help you,” Renee said. “Can you tell us who you are so we can attempt to put you at rest?”

**NO**

“You don’t want to be put to rest?” asked Matt with a pained expression.

The planchette moved only slightly, quickly settling back over the **NO**. 

“Why not?” Dan piped up.

For a moment, the planchette remained still. Then, slowly but gathering speed, it began to spell out something else.

**I**

**N**

**E**

**E**

**D**

**T**

**O**

**W**

**A**

**R**

**N**

**Y**

**O**

**U**

“Warn us?” said Nicky. He swallowed hard enough that it was audible. “About what?”

**H**

**E**

**S**

**S**

**T**

**I**

**L**

**L**

**H**

**E**

**R**

**E**

“Who’s still-?” Kevin began.

But Andrew had already realised what the ghost meant. “The Butcher,” he said. 

**YES**

“Uhh. Where is he?” asked Nicky, shuddering.

**D**

**O**

**N**

**T**

**G**

**O**

**I**

**N**

**T**

**H**

**E**

**B**

**A**

**S**

**E**

**M**

**E**

**N**

**T**

**D**

**A**

**D**

**D**

**O**

**E**

**S**

**N**

**T**

**L**

**I**

**K**

**E**

**I**

**T**

**W**

**H**

**E**

**N**

**Y**

**O**

**U**

**M**

**I**

**S**

**B**

**E**

**H**

**A**

**V**

**E**

“Okay,” said Nicky, loudly. “Okay, no. I can’t deal with this.” He pushed his chair back from the table but didn’t get up, trembling where he sat.

“I thought you were leaving,” said Seth, sneering.

“I don’t want to be on my own!” Nicky whined. “Andrew! Come with me.”

Andrew ignored him. “Were you the reason that the knives came at us?” he asked the ghost, gesturing to his twin.

“Yeah!” Aaron said, as if he had suddenly remembered the incident. “Why should we listen to this… _thing_ if it was the reason I almost died?”

“Were you?” Renee asked the ghost, her gaze sweeping the room.

**YES**

“Why?” Dan piped up. “If you’re trying to warn us, why are you trying to kill us?”

**H**

**E**

**L**

**I**

**K**

**E**

**S**

**K**

**N**

**I**

**V**

**E**

**S**

“What the fuck does that mean?” Seth demanded. “He’s throwing knives around because Daddy liked to carve him up?”

In response, the planchette shot off the table and hit Seth squarely between the eyes. As the idiotic striker cursed and clutched at his head, the planchette clattered onto the table. Before anyone could pick it up, it lifted off the table, floated back to the board and dropped onto it. Then it slid around to spell out another, much shorter message.

**O**

**O**

**P**

**S**

“Jesus,” Matt muttered, looking equal parts impressed by the ghost’s bad attitude and terrified that the ghost could move things around so well.

“So you threw the knives at us because your dad forced you to?” Allison suggested.

**NO**

“Then why?” asked Dan.

**I**

**V**

**E**

**H**

**A**

**D**

**E**

**N**

**O**

**U**

**G**

**H**

**O**

**F**

**K**

**N**

**I**

**V**

**E**

**S**

**T**

**O**

**L**

**A**

**S**

**T**

**A**

**L**

**I**

**F**

**E**

For a brief moment, the planchette stopped in the middle before returning to spelling something out, correcting what the ghost was saying.

**T**

**O**

**L**

**A**

**S**

**T**

**M**

**Y**

**D**

**E**

**A**

**T**

**H**

And then the planchette launched itself at Andrew. Of course, with his sharp reflexes, he was able to catch it before it hit him in the face. He gave the room at large an unimpressed look. Clearly, the ghost had taken umbrage at the fact that he had been threatening Seth with his knife, but he wasn’t going to apologise or change his ways. Instead, he threw the planchette back to the board where it slid across it before being abruptly halted and returned to the middle of the board. 

“Oh, dear Lord!” Nicky exclaimed, staring at the planchette. “That is so creepy.”

“Focus!” said Dan. She looked up, as if the ghost was floating above them. “I know you wanted to warn us, and we’re thankful for that. But… He’s not here anymore. Do you want us to do anything so that you can move on?”

**S**

**I**

**G**

**H**

“Christ,” muttered Kevin. “This ghost really has an attitude problem.”

“Yes,” Andrew agreed. “But he’s already told us what he wants.”

“What? When?” asked Matt, befuddled.

“It’s obvious,” Andrew said, dismissively.

“He’s trying to protect us,” Renee told the rest of them. “There are other ghosts here, aren’t there?”

**YES**

“And they’ll kill us if they get the chance?”

**YES**

**D**

**O**

**N**

**T**

**G**

**O**

**I**

**N**

**T**

**H**

**E**

**B**

**A**

**S**

**E**

**M**

**E**

**N**

**T**

**A**

**V**

**O**

**I**

**D**

**T**

**H**

**E**

The planchette suddenly stopped moving. Everyone stared at it, even Andrew. Only a creaking sound from somewhere upstairs invaded the silence. Then, without any warning, the planchette began to spin. It quickly picked up speed.

“What’s going on?” Matt asked, pushing back from the table.

“Something’s wrong,” Renee said as she pushed Allison away from the danger.

“Move,” said Andrew to Kevin, who he pulled off his chair.

As it spun faster and faster, smoke began to billow from the middle of the board. There was a cry that sounded a lot like ‘no!’ but nobody was speaking. Then, abruptly, the planchette burst into flames which quickly spread across the board. Everyone scrambled away from the table. 

Just as suddenly as it had started, a strong, cold breeze blew past Andrew and the rest of the group. It swept over the fire and the flames suddenly ceased to exist; at the same time, a door slammed shut somewhere in the house. The planchette and ouija board, however, were burnt beyond recognition. Only the edges remained, including the word, **GOODBYE**. Andrew wondered if it was a message from the ghost they had been speaking with - or from a more sinister force.


	5. The Radio

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point soon, I'll have an announcement on [my Tumblr](https://fire-bear.tumblr.com/), if you want to check it out. Also, I'm going to try to be better about letting people know where I've gone off to in the form of excerpts of my non-fanfic writing, if you want to check that out. (I should really have done this before NanoWrimo so you all could see my excerpts then, but you can search for it on my blog, if you want.)
> 
> P.S. I was trying to get the radio parts in the second section to be a smaller font than the rest of it, but, alas, HTML hates me and I couldn't get it to work... (It deleted stuff instead and I don't know what was going on.)

For a moment, no-one moved. Andrew doubted that anyone was breathing. Then, all at once, the others began to exclaim and move. Some of them hurried forward to make sure nothing else was burnt. His family moved closer to Andrew, seemingly convinced that he could protect them from whatever was going on. Seth, meanwhile, took a few more steps back. He was pale and couldn’t stop staring at the board. 

Ignoring all of them, Andrew decided to investigate a hunch and swept from the room. He made his way around the bottom of the staircase and looked along the hallway. Andrew was just in time to see the basement door swinging shut. The click was barely audible yet had a certain finality about it. Andrew narrowed his eyes at it; he was sure that the basement was the reason for the fire and not the ghost boy.

By the time Andrew returned to the dining room, the rest of them had finally calmed down somewhat. The only one making any noise about their situation was Seth. “Fuck this!” he exclaimed just as Andrew took his place next to his family. “I’m getting out of here. We’re all gonna die and I’m not sticking around for that.”

“And where are you going to go?” Allison asked, scornfully. 

“I have actual friends that I can stay with,” Seth snapped back, clearly irritated that Allison was looking down her nose at him. It looked as if ghosts were one of the things which pushed them to being in the ‘off’ stage of their relationship.

“All we need to do is exorcise all the ghosts,” Dan said, reasonably. “But we need more information.”

“The fuck we do,” snarled Seth.

“Leave,” Andrew suggested, giving Seth an unimpressed look. 

“Yeah!” Nicky agreed, even though he was hunched in on himself from fear. “We don’t want you here, anyway, so you should take your own advice.”

Seth took a threatening step towards Nicky. “Listen, you-” 

“Enough!” snapped Dan. “Fighting among ourselves isn’t going to help. We need to figure out which ghosts are here and how to exorcise them.” She turned to the table and frowned down at the ouija board. “The ghost that was talking to us didn’t seem so bad-”

“Did you not see it flinging that- that _thing_ at me?!” Seth exclaimed, incredulously.

“-and it might have told us more if we had convinced it that we could handle ourselves,” Dan continued, ignoring him. “It’s a pity that the board’s ruined.”

“There might be other ways to contact them,” Renee piped up. “We’ll just need to find them.”

“We know which ghost we were talking to, though, right?” said Matt, frowning down at the remnants of the board. He poked it with a finger. “The ghost said ‘dad’, right?”

“So he’s Nathaniel,” Kevin said - and the temperature in the room immediately dropped.

“Shit,” said Aaron, hunching in on himself as he shivered. “What’s wrong now? None of us have knives.” He gave Andrew a sidelong look but stopped talking.

“Maybe it’s the name,” Matt suggested.

“Well, this is ridiculous,” Allison cut in. She raised her voice and her gaze to the ceiling. “The ghost shouldn’t be punishing us for things we can’t help!” 

“Then he’s the son,” Dan said, her hands on her hips and brow furrowed. “Maybe we can get him to tell us how to get rid of _all_ of the ghosts.”

“That still means we need to talk to it,” Allison pointed out. “Or ‘him’. We’ll need to go buy another ouija board.”

“Or,” said Kevin, frowning in thought. He stopped there, though, with everyone staring at him, hanging onto his every word.

“Or what?” asked Nicky when he clearly couldn’t stand it any longer, leaning forward.

Kevin shook his head. “Or we could get professional people in to-”

The dining room door slammed shut. Andrew had the feeling that their favourite ghost didn’t want anyone else coming into the house, not with the danger of the basement still present. He watched everyone else jump and squeal with surprise. Before everyone could panic yet again, Andrew decided to speak up.

“He tried to speak to us before,” he said, looking around them all. Andrew wondered if any of them would understand.

Renee, of course, was the only one to figure it out. She tilted her head before she spoke, as if she was searching for confirmation from the ghost itself. “The movie.”

“What, when it was messing with the TV?” Matt asked, incredulously. “We can’t talk to it like that - we’d go through too many consoles!”

“Don’t ghosts talk on radios, too?” Nicky asked, apparently calming down now that the ghost seemed to be (mostly) gone.

“Oh, yeah!” Dan said, her face lighting up. “That’s true. I’ve got an old one up in my room. I’ll go get it and we can see if that will work.”

“Isn’t it a special radio, though?” Matt asked, already tapping away at his phone. “We might need to go buy one.”

“Let’s try mine first,” Dan insisted. “If it doesn’t work, we can look into getting one of…”

“A spirit box,” Matt told them, looking up from his phone with a grin.

“Right. Let me go get it. I’ll meet you in the den.”

Just like that, the hesitant and unsure atmosphere broke and the others began to move. Andrew stayed where he was, leaning his hip against the table with his arms crossed over his chest. Dan left the room and Matt followed, like the hopeless, overgrown puppy he was. Seth huffed and stormed out of the room while Allison turned to Renee to mutter something before she followed him, obviously trying not to look as if she was doing just that. Renee left with her, and the rest turned to look at him. Nicky was biting his lip as he stepped towards Andrew.

“Uh, are we gonna do it with them?”

“We should,” said Kevin, in a grand tone. “If this interferes with our season-”

“Really, Kevin?!” Nicky exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch. “ _How_ are you linking a _ghost_ to exy?”

“We all need rest after-” Kevin began.

“Enough,” said Andrew, tired of Kevin’s constant exy talk. “Do what you want.”

“Andrew-” Kevin tried to protest, frowning at him. 

Instead of listening to him, Andrew waved him off. Huffing, Kevin spun on his heel and stalked from the room. Nicky hesitated, looking at Andrew with wide eyes; an ill-advised attempt to wordlessly ask Andrew to share his thoughts. Andrew looked calmly back at him, only stopping when he heard Aaron’s scoff. His brother sent Andrew a glare before he also left the room, head held as high as their short stature allowed. With a glance at Nicky, Andrew effectively dismissed the last of his family so he could have a moment to think. Nicky left with his tail between his legs, concerned glances over his shoulder the last thing that Andrew saw of him. 

He folded his arms again as he thought about their problem. Really, they should all move out, abandon the house for ghost hunters to have fun in. Andrew had promises to keep, people to protect. But Andrew was interested in their ghost and, if that could pierce his boredom, he would allow their investigations, for now. As soon as one of his got hurt, he would move them all out.

That was what Andrew told himself, even as he stared down at the ruined ouija board and its last message for several minutes, wondering if that had been the last word from his unwanted roommate.

* * *

Half an hour later, there were sandwiches and drinks and chocolate for Andrew. Everyone was in the den, eating. Nicky was attempting to keep morale high, for some reason, with inane chatter that Andrew tuned out. The only person who wasn’t sitting was Dan who was fiddling with a tiny, old-style radio. It was pink and decorated with stickers, hearts and stars exploding from the speaker. As she spun the dial, they picked up crackly stations from around Baltimore and Maryland.

“You need to get it between stations,” Kevin informed her, as if he was the expert on ghost communication.

“I’m trying,” Dan retorted through gritted teeth. Clearly, she was at the end of her tether with Kevin’s pompous attitude to this, as well as exy.

Eventually, Dan found a bandwidth which didn’t have anybody already talking and no music. Instead, it was the annoying static which prickled at Andrew’s ears. He only shifted a little, pressing into the beanbag a little more in an effort to be swallowed by it and be protected from the awful noise. When Aaron glanced at him, he stopped and took a massive bite out of the thick bar of chocolate. 

Once Dan sat down, everyone fell silent. Those who were eating slowed down, obviously trying to keep quiet. Just to annoy them all, Andrew made sure that each bite of his chocolate made a loud snap. Nicky flinched with each one, clearly terrified that the ghost was attempting to do something to them. With each bite, Andrew was satisfied to see Seth trembling with suppressed rage until, finally, he snapped.

“For fuck’s sake!” he burst out. 

“Seth,” said Allison, her tone tired. Andrew didn’t know why she bothered trying to rein in her on-again, off-again boyfriend.

“No, I’ve had enough,” Seth snarled. “He’s so full of himself. Why don’t you show the ghost what you’re really like so it can kill you and put us all out of our misery?”

Andrew wordlessly bit off another chunk of chocolate.

In the same instant, some sort of screeching noise, quiet and distant, came from the radio. Everyone fell silent, including Seth. Some of them even froze, Matt with his mouth wide and his sandwich raised. After a few seconds of waiting, the team relaxed as one.

“Fuck,” grumbled Seth, shifting so that he could spread his legs wider for no clear reason. “Are we really gonna do nothing but listen to _that_?”

“Maybe we can ask him questions?” Renee suggested.

“Like what?” asked Nicky, incredulously. “‘Hey, ghostie, what’s your favourite colour?’”

A loud crackling noise burst from the radio before it suddenly receded into silence. Everyone in the room bar Andrew and Renee winced at it. Andrew watched the radio for a moment, wondering if their makeshift spirit box was actually going to work. Then, so quiet that they would have missed it if they hadn’t all been still and holding their breaths, a voice came from the radio, sweet and sticky like honey, hooking into Andrew’s memory to be played over and over.

_“Grey.”_

There was a further silence as everyone processed that. Eventually, Aaron piped up, scowling at the room at large. “Did the ghost seriously just say that his favourite colour is _grey_?”

_“Yes.”_

Something like amusement passed through Andrew’s being for just a millisecond when he saw how uncomfortable Aaron felt at being answered. Then, once it had passed, Andrew fixed his attention on the radio, casting his eyes over the area around it. He could just about see, in his mind’s eye, the boy from before, stood beside the radio. But the ghost wasn’t visible and Andrew wondered if only certain circumstances made ghosts visible - like trying to scare people away from their house. Regardless of the answer, Andrew asked it a question.

“Did you burn the ouija board?”

There was a moment of silence. The radio crackled. Then, small and far away, the voice came to them. Andrew realised that it sounded exhausted; the ghost must have been fighting for years. 

_“Not exactly.”_

“‘Not exactly’,” Seth mocked. “Sure fucking looked like it.”

_“You’re very annoying.”_

Seth spluttered at that, clearly offended. “The fuck?!” he demanded, voice loud and demanding. Andrew thought he heard a huff of amusement from the radio, though it could just as likely have been static. 

Pushing Seth back against the couch they sat on, Allison leaned forward. “Can you explain what _did_ happen, ghostie?”

 _“He_ **_~~~_ ** _-orry.”_

“You’re, uh, breaking up,” said Matt.

_“No… energy…”_

“Energy?” said Kevin, perking up. “Ghosts need energy?”

“Down, boy,” Andrew muttered before stuffing the last piece of chocolate into his mouth. 

Dan rolled her eyes, then raised her head to address the room at large. “Did something happen?” she asked.

 _“The… basement. He came up to-”_ Static cut him off. For a moment, no-one spoke or moved. Then, suddenly, a growl came from the radio. Nicky screamed and leapt to his feet, his sandwich falling to the floor in his haste. The others flinched, but they had frozen instead of trying to flee. As Nicky backed off, Andrew stared at the radio, waiting. Finally, the voice came back again. _“This is- so difficult. Ask easier questions.”_

“Are there any easy questions?” Andrew drawled.

After a pause, the ghost spoke again. _“No.”_

“Then,” said Renee, leaning forward, “just answer this: what’s your name?”

Something strange happened then. A combination of a screech and a scream had everyone flinching. Matt and Nicky both let out cries of anguish and clapped their hands over their ears. Only Andrew strained to hear more, ignoring the painful way the sound grated on his ears and his mind. Somewhere, beneath it, a voice spoke and, when the noise abruptly stopped, Andrew was the only one to hear the tail end of what the ghost was actually saying. _“-niel.”_ Andrew’s brain worked quickly and he knew then that he had just received confirmation that he was talking to Nathaniel, the tragic figure of the son of a serial killer. 

However, there was something in the way that the first part of his name had been obscured in such a painful way that made Andrew dismiss his full name. “Neil,” he said. It sounded better than the rather egocentric ‘Nathaniel’. That name had been a way for Nathan to flaunt his family, wealth, power - and all tied to a baby who grew into a boy and died far too young. None of that really moved Andrew, but he wasn’t prepared to listen to screaming if they called him ‘Nathaniel’.

There was a pause before the ghost said, _“Yes.”_

“Tell us your message,” Andrew said, an offer to listen to what he had to say instead of just dismissing him.

 _“Get out before_ **_~~~_ ** _danger-”_

“That’s not an answer,” Andrew pointed out.

“What sort of danger?” Seth demanded, having apparently found his voice again. Andrew, who had been leaning toward the radio, subsided back into his beanbag to let the others take over. His interest wasn’t quashed, though, even as Seth’s grew. “Like,” said Seth, “is it like The Ring or The Grudge or something?”

Another pause. _“I don’t know what that is?”_

“He died before those came out,” Kevin told Seth, with an air of disgust at Seth’s thoughtlessness. Then, seemingly bolstered by his superior knowledge, he turned to the radio. “Never mind that. We want to exorcise you, so tell us what we have to do.”

_“No.”_

“We need to exorcise the other ghosts first, right?” Allison asked, shooting Kevin a triumphant look. “Tell us how to get rid of them all.”

Again, there was a pause. This time, it went on for longer. Static came and went, but no-one moved or assumed that the ghost was finished speaking, not when the radio kept going silent. Andrew decided that the ghost was deliberating the pros and cons of this plan. Then something crackled across the silence; a heavy sigh.

 _“You will die,”_ the ghost plainly said. _“They will_ **_~~~_ ** _They will- ... kill you before_ **_~~~_ ** _before you-_ **_~~~~_ ** _can’t- Bye.”_ And the radio returned, abruptly, to static.

* * *

After their tedious and uninformative conversation with Neil the Ghost, the others had tried to work out the best thing to do. All of them wanted to help Neil by that point, but it seemed that the ghost wouldn’t accept it until the other ghosts were put to rest. However, Nicky was spooked and didn’t want to put himself in danger while Seth was insistent that they left before he died. Renee was determined to help, of course, as were the rest of them. Andrew believed that Kevin only wanted to help so that they could get back to talking about exy as quickly as possible. Aaron clearly didn’t care, though he wasn’t best pleased at everyone’s interest in a ghost that had thrown a knife at him.

Meanwhile, Andrew made his way out of the room and into the garden at the back of the house. It was overgrown and clearly in need of a lot of work, but there was plenty of room for Kevin to insist on installing a half-court so they could practice all day long. Despairing that his own thoughts had turned to exy, Andrew pulled out his cigarettes and smoked two as he thought of a ghost named Neil, fighting against his own monsters to keep everyone safe. He threw his last stick onto the ground and stamped on it harder than necessary.

He was sure the smoke lingered in the air longer than normal before he went back inside.

When he returned to the den to make a cursory check that his own people were still alive, he stepped into an argument between Kevin and Seth, the others gathered around them as if they were in the colosseum. Kevin had his arms crossed in an effort to make his words seem final. Seth, meanwhile, was gesturing wildly. Andrew caught the tail end of what Seth was saying, but he didn’t care, watching Seth closely in case the idiot decided to try to hurt what was Andrew’s.

“-exy? You’re such a bastard - nobody _cares_ about exy right now!”

“And you all should,” Kevin retorted. “This could seriously affect our performances in games.”

“Listen, asshole, if we die because of your obsession-” Seth snarled as he stepped closer. His arms dropped to his sides, hands curled into fists. Andrew shifted his weight, ready to move if Seth presented a greater threat than he currently did. Seth caught the movement and stopped, glowering at Andrew. That drew Kevin’s attention to Andrew, unfortunately, and their resident exy fanatic turned on him.

“Andrew,” he said, a demand and a call to arms all at once. “This ghost will-”

“I don’t care,” Andrew cut him off. 

“But-”

“Kevin,” Andrew warned. The taller man frowned but subsided, grumbling as he made his way to the corner of the room to drop into an armchair.

“Ha!” Seth crowed, grinning wide. “There, see? Even the monster agrees with me. No more talking to the ghost.”

Andrew gave Seth an unimpressed look. Since Andrew wasn’t going to waste his breath on him, Nicky stepped in, leaning forward on the couch he and Aaron were sitting on. “He didn’t say anything like that,” Nicky pointed out. 

“What, so, _now_ you want to talk to it?” Seth demanded, glaring at Nicky.

“ _God_ , no,” answered Nicky, shuddering at the thought. His terrified grimace stayed on his face as he glanced around. “Do you… Do you think he’s _in here_? With us?”

“What a pussy,” Seth muttered. “Honestly, can you be any more gay?”

“Hey!” Nicky exclaimed, the fear fading in light of the homophobic comment.

“Seth,” said Matt, an admonishment and exasperated word all at once.

“What? It’s not like I’m wro-”

A burst of static drowned out his words, emanating from the radio - which Dan had long since switched off after they’d given up on the ghost returning to speak. Everyone stilled and fell silent, turning towards it. Andrew moved further into the room so he could lean against the wall, arms folded as he waited. Neil seemed like the type of person - or ghost - who would step in with a righteous word. Perhaps that was what was happening here and Andrew wondered if he would be entertained enough not to merely leave for his room as he had been intending on when he came back inside.

Garbled words that were too quiet to properly decipher spilled from the speaker. Everyone tensed, waiting. Slowly, the voice grew louder until, eventually, they could make out two voices. One was female, the other sounded like someone young. There were other noises, like movements, a clock, doors opening and closing. On the couch, Nicky was trembling.

“I don’t like this,” he muttered, sounding quite teary.

Before anyone could hush him, the sound of a door closing was clearly audible on the radio, suddenly loud enough to be distinguishable from everything else. Nicky fell quiet and they heard the quiet patter of feet - small feet. Then, there was grunting and huffing; Andrew imagined a little boy clambering onto the couch and walking along it. After a few seconds of just breathing, the little boy spoke.

“Come on, number one!” he murmured, voice cute. Andrew could almost see his little hand holding that faded figurine, his red hair and blue eyes lit up with delight. Would he have been smiling back then? He shook his thoughts away and concentrated on the little boy babbling away. To his disdain, it was clear that the boy was playing make-believe about exy. It wasn’t until a few minutes had passed that he said something that drew Kevin’s attention. “And Kayleigh Day breaks through!” the little boy announced, though he was still keeping relatively quiet.

Before Kevin could say anything and almost as soon as he’d finished speaking, a door opened and someone hurried in. “Nathaniel,” hissed a woman, sounding scared and angry. Or, Andrew amended, terrified and furious. “What are you _doing_? You know your father doesn’t like you playing in here!”

“I’m-I’m sorry!” the boy gasped out. “I was hiding-”

“Quiet!” snapped the woman and the boy inhaled sharply. Andrew tensed, well aware of what a child being hit or grabbed too roughly sounded like.

“Mom?” the boy asked, clearly surprised and growing more scared by the moment.

“We need to- Get your things.”

“What?” said the boy, now confused. Apparently, he couldn’t keep up with the woman’s changing mood.

“Get your things!” his mother hissed.

A crackling sound, loud enough to make the group make noises of surprise, seemed to end the scene. Andrew glanced around the room and wasn’t surprised when he saw all the grim faces. Dan and Matt even looked angry, and Andrew knew that, if they had met Neil when he was alive, they would have taken him under their wing. He looked at his brother and frowned at the tense picture he displayed, his jaw clenched and hand clutching at the arm of the couch. Andrew decided that he would have to keep a close eye on Aaron to make sure he didn’t relapse due to the traumatic memories.

As soon as the crackling stopped, the boy was speaking again, though he sounded more distant. “Mom, wait! I’ve left my-”

“Leave it,” snapped the woman.

“But, Mom-”

“No ‘buts’.”

“Where are we going?” the boy asked, sounding more and more stressed and scared. “Where’s Dad-?”

“Hush. We’re leaving.”

“With Dad?”

“No,” said the woman, the tension in her voice increasing with each word. “Now, hurry up.”

“But- That’s the- Is Dad down there?” As he spoke, there was a scraping noise and louder footsteps. Andrew supposed the boy had tried to stop his mother dragging him to the basement door and stumbled when she was too strong for him. “Mom, please, I don’t-”

“Shut up,” snapped the woman. “Be quiet, for once.”

“Mom…” whispered the boy.

There was the sound of a door opening and closing before the radio crackled once again. Then there was a heavy silence. Nobody moved or said anything for a moment. Finally, Dan let out a long breath. 

“That was-”

A new voice suddenly exploded from the radio. “Where are they?” asked a man, tone cold and unyielding.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said a woman’s voice, this one venomous and dangerous. “The basement door was open. We think they left that way.”

“The safe?”

“Open,” said a gruff man. “Money gone.”

A pause, this one loaded. Then the first man spoke. “Find them. Bring them here. I will teach them both why they shouldn’t take what’s mine.”

“And if they don’t want to accompany us home?” asked the woman, her voice full of glee.

“The basement is empty,” replied the man, the words full of meaning.

Another crackling sound came from the radio followed quickly by static. A click of a switch echoed in the quiet room and true silence fell. Nobody moved or seemed to breathe. Andrew found himself gripping his arms tighter than he intended to, his jaw clenched. He almost wanted to bring Nathan Wesninski back to life just to kill him again, but he tamped down that desire and it quickly faded into obscurity.

A heavy atmosphere had the others shifting a little where they sat, none of them looking at anything in particular. Then, on a breath, Matt said, “Fuck”, and the dam of words was broken. As the others started talking all at once, Andrew pulled out his pack of cigarettes and headed for the door.


End file.
